Calcutta, July 28: Rupa Mazumdar, who had allegedly secured a rank in the joint entrance examination with the help of a “dummy” candidate, was arrested in Varanasi this morning.

The arrest came on a day the police were gearing up to get in touch with the higher education brass in connection with the exam scam.

A search is on for at least seven Calcutta doctors who appeared as “dummies” for the post-graduate entrance test in Bangalore this year.

Rupa, 19, a resident of Varanasi, had filled the Bengal JEE admission form showing her father’s ancestral house off City Centre in Durgapur as her permanent address. But the police said Babli Kazmi, who was held in Varanasi a few days ago, took the exam on her behalf.

Rupa ranked 707 and was set to take admission at Mednipur Medical College when the racket came to light. “She came in touch with Ranvijay Pathak in Calcutta through Smita Chatterjee, who runs an institute in Durgapur, and paid Rs 8.5 lakh for the admission,” said city detective chief Ajoy Kumar.

Final-year MBBS student Pathak is said to be the mastermind of the racket.

Rupa’s mother Ruby works in the railways and lives with her daughter. Rupa cleared her Plus II with first-division marks in 2006. She was a student of St John’s School DLW in Varanasi.

The mother and daughter went missing after the racket was busted. They were held when they returned home — at Augustyakunda — around 9.30 this morning.

Twelve persons have been arrested in connection with the case so far. The sleuths are now looking for an agent from Lucknow and another dummy from Bangalore.

The police have learnt that Sayed Abrar, the mechanical engineer arrested from Bangalore on Thursday, was in touch with Ranvijay and Mihir Jha — a doctor who is among the racket’s kingpins — for at least five years. Abrar was allegedly responsible for cancelling the admission of successful candidates so that the seats were up for sale through “management quota”.