NEET row
Five women arrested after girls asked to remove bras to get entry for NEET exam in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram/IBNS: Five women, including three who asked students appearing for the NEET exam to remove their bras in Kerala's Kollam, have been arrested, media reports said.
The police have received three complaints from the students who were subjected to this humiliation before the medical entrance exam.
However, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has denied the allegations of the girl whose father first went to the police.
The complaint is "fictitious and filed with wrong intentions," the NEET exam centre superintendent in Kollam reportedly told the National Testing Agency.
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 to go through such a "traumatic experience" of sitting for an over three-hour exam without a bra.
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 centre.
"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.
While the exam centre has denied the charge, the National Testing Agency said that the "NEET dress code does not permit any such activity alleged by parent of candidate:".
Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu has written to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan seeking strong action against the agency that allegedly forced the girls to take off their bras before allowing them entry into the exam hall.
"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," Bindu wrote.
"I write to place on record that we take strong exception to such inhuman behaviour from an agency that has only been entrusted with the task of conducting the examination in a fair manner," the minister said.
The Kerala police have also registered a case against those who carried out security checks and allegedly asked them to take off their underwear.
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