Story Of Assam Tea Seller Boy Qualifying NEET In First Attempt Turns Out To Be Bogus

A few days back, news of an Assam tea seller boy qualifying NEET and securing a seat at AIIMS surfaced all over the internet. The boy identified as Rahul Kumar Das, a resident of Patacharkuchi in the Bajali district of Assam, was reported to have cracked the exam in the first attempt.

Following the media reports, the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the state government would take care of his educational expenses. Also, Minister of Assam cabinet Ranjit Kumar Dass visited Patacharkuchi, felicitated Rahul, and affirmed that the government would bear his educational expenses.

Several media outlets such as The Times of India, The Quint, Telegraph India, Guwahati Plus reported the same narrative.

Claim:

Assam tea seller boy qualifies NEET in the first attempt.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact check team verified the claim and found it fake.

Rahul Kumar Das's admit card was doctored as there were discrepancies such as roll number and date of birth in the details mentioned on the card.

After the news of an Assam tea seller boy qualifying NEET and securing a seat at AIIMS surfaced all over the internet, the other students from the state who appeared for the same exam raised the alarm to the media. The students claimed that Rahul's claim is fake.

Multiple sources have verified that the records mentioned in the admit card Rahul gave are doctored and belong to a girl identified as Kiranjeet Kaur from Haryana. Rahul's admit card had roll number- 2303001114, which has turned out to be Kiranjeet's, who secured all India rank (AIR) 11656.

Initially, Assam regional media picked up the story, which was soon taken up by mainstream media outlets and further circulated all over the internet.

Northeast Live, a verified Youtube channel did a video report on the matter and called it bogus. The video description reads, "In a sensational development, the story of a tea seller from Assam's Bajali making it into AIIMS by cracking the NEET exam which had grabbed all the headlines has now turned out to be bogus."

Darpan Oleman, a resident of Patacharkuchi, said that he had known Rahul for a long time; he stays in his own world. Oleman said, "We wanted to contact him, but he didn't respond to us. When we checked his mark sheet, his details did not match as per the result declared. We checked his admit card and then were shocked to know that it was an edited admit card; when we searched his roll number on the official website, the result shows a girl named Kiranjeet Kaur from Haryana".

Then we searched his data by putting his application number and date of birth on the Ministry of Education's NEET Results website. It showed an invalid application number/date of birth.

Sasanka Talukdar, an independent investigative journalist, revealed Rahul's original mark sheet that shows his all India ranking as 9,29,881 and a total marks of 106 out of 720.

We checked Rahul's scorecard on the NEET Results website with the given roll number. We found Rahul's original mark sheet, which shows his All India ranking as 9,29,881.

We tried to contact Rahul through his Instagram profile. The story will be updated once we will get his response. NDTV reported that the anguished locals have dismantled the small pan-tea shop of Rahul Kumar Das and his mother. The locals alleged that Rahul, his mother, and his younger sister were all absconding. Rahul has also made a Facebook post threatening to die by suicide.

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