NEET 2022 frisking Kerala: 5 women get arrested

Five women are arrested for the NEET 2022 alleged frisking incident in Kerala where NEET female aspirants were asked to remove innerwear for appearing in the entrance examination.

After the Kerala government took up the issue with Centre on the matter, Union minister V Muraleedharan and other public representatives from Kerala also met Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan regarding the issue.

As per reports, the teenage girls were asked to remove their innerwear due to the metallic hooks present in them. The protest began on July 18 and turned violent on Tuesday, as reported by Business Standard.

Union Ministry of Education (MoE) said that the ministry came to know about the incident through various media reports and a fact-finding committee was constituted by the NTA to ascertain the facts in detail, the panel will also visit Kollam.

"Further action will be taken based on the report of the fact-finding committee which will visit Kollam," a senior MoE official said.

NTA earlier denied the incident, now established committee

At first, the Nationa Testing Agency (NTA), after getting comments from the exam centre's superintendent, its independent observer and the city coordinator said the complaint is fictitious and filed with wrong intentions. However, the three of the arrested women worked for an agency hired by NTA and two worked for the private educational institution at Ayur in Kollam where the incident happened.

Moreover, Kerala Women's Commission registered a case based on complaints it received. Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu has written a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and expressed "dismay and shock" at the news of the "naked assault on the dignity and honour of the girl students." 

Read more:

• NEET 2022 candidate asked to remove innerwear; NTA says no complaint received
• NEET 2022: Over 95% of candidates appeared in exam held at 3,570 exam centres