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Two engineers and a clerk suspended over NEET ‘leak’; Tejashwi says investigating agencies may question my PA | India News

As the Bihar government on Thursday suspended two engineers and a clerk for allotting a room in the NHAI guest house to an accused in the NEET document leak case, allegedly on the request of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s personal assistant, the former deputy chief minister on Friday said the BJP was “politicising” the issue and that investigators were free to question his personal assistant.

Tejashwi accused the BJP of “politicising” the issue, adding that the Economic Offences Unit (EOU), which is investigating the NEET case, had not talked about questioning his personal assistant.

On Thursday, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha told reporters, “We have suspended senior engineer Umesh Rai, junior engineer Dharmendra Kumar Dharmkant and clerk Pradeep Kumar for allocating a room in the name of Sikander P Yadvendu for May 4, a day before the NEET-UG exam… From the details of the conversation, Yadvendu had called Tejashwi’s personal assistant Pritam Kumar on May 1. On May 4, Pritam called clerk Pradeep Kumar, who allotted a room to Sikander after informing the two engineers.” Pritam, a Bihar Public Service Commission official, was appointed as Tejashwi’s personal assistant in August 2022 when the latter was deputy chief minister and continues to hold the same position even though the RJD leader is now the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Parliament.

Tejashwi, who was responding for the first time to the allegations against his personal assistant, told reporters, “They (the NDA) have the government at the Centre and in Bihar. Investigative agencies are under them. They are free to talk to his PA. But the BJP is trying to politicise the matter as the EOU has not said anything like that.”

RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta said, “Instead of making insinuations against our party, the BJP should answer how a dubious person like Sikander Yadavendu got the job of a junior engineer in 2012 during the NDA government and how he was transferred to the urban development and housing department in 2021 when the NDA was in power.”