According to the police, Prof Priji Kurian and Dr. Shamnad, the two arrested issued directions to the officials/staffers at the college for the controversial inspection. According to the investigators, these two teachers had instructed the staff officer to ask the students to remove their underwear before entering the exam center of a college in Kerala’s Kollam.
NEET candidates had to remove their underwear before entering an exam center in Kerala on the orders of two teachers. This is what the Kerala Police claimed. Two more teachers accused in the case were arrested on Sunday. In all, the number of accused arrested so far stands at seven.
Earlier, five persons, including two college staffers, were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly forcing students to remove innerwear before attending the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in Kerala’s Kollam on July 17. Three of the arrested were from the agency entrusted to conduct the exam by the National Testing Agency.
Incidentally, on July 17, students came to the examination center of a college in Kollam, Kerala, for the All India Entrance Test (‘National Eligibility Entrance Test’ or NEET) for medical studies. Allegedly, the students were forced to remove their underwear before sitting for the examination. The accused teachers directed the invigilators to ensure that the students enter the examination hall without their underwear.
The National Testing Agency, the organization organizing the exam, has already denied the allegations. Although three employees of the organization and two employees of the college, a total of five women have already been arrested by the Kerala Police.
Soon after the incident came to light, Kerala Higher education minister R Bindu asked the Centre to take strict action against the National Testing Agency that was entrusted to conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) exam.
After the uproar over this incident, the Kerala administration formed an investigation team and started investigating the incident. Besides, Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu requested the central government to take strict action against the National Testing Agency.
What is the whole story?
The controversy emerged on Monday when the father of the 17-year-old girl told the media that his daughter, taking her first-ever NEET exam, had yet to recover from the “traumatic experience” of sitting for an over three-hour exam without a bra. “Is your future or innerwear big for you? Just remove it and don’t waste our time (sic),” the father’s complaint quoted security personnel as saying.
The father has alleged in his complaint that the girl was asked to remove her bra after the metal hooks beeped during a security check at the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology, the exam center. The complaint also claimed that “90 percent of female students had to remove their inners and keep them in a storeroom”.
Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu has written to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan seeking strong against the agency that allegedly forced the girls to take off their bras before allowing them entry into the exam hall. She expressed “dismay and shock” at what she called a “naked assault on the dignity and honor of the girl students” who appeared for the NEET examination.
“The shame and shock of this unexpected turn of events have affected the morale and composure of the students whose performance in the test was consequently affected,” Ms. Bindu wrote, recommending strong, deterrent action. “I write to place on record that we take strong exception to such inhuman behavior from an agency that has only been entrusted with the task of examining in a fair manner”, the minister said.
