A medical entrance test racket was thriving way back in 2003, if prime accused Ayan Mukhopadhyay is to be believed.

The final-year MBBS student at Medical College, arrested after the joint entrance exam (JEE) scam was exposed last week, has told police that he was first approached by the racket in 2003, when he was in his second year.

Someone by the name of Pappu had offered him and his two friends up to Rs 2 lakh if they agreed to appear in the JEE for genuine candidates.

Ayan claims that he had not only turned down Pappu’s offer but also reported the matter to the students’ union at the college.

Pappu, who Ayan said was a Kidderpore resident, told the three that he would “take care of everything else” if they agreed to his offer. Before leaving, he had left his contact number with Ayan.

Six months later, Ayan was approached with a similar offer by another person, who claimed to be a student of North Bengal Medical College. He refused again.

The youth, however, could not resist the temptation of big bucks when he came in touch with Ranvijay Pathak, his senior at Medical College and an alleged kingpin of the racket exposed last week.

“Ranvijay must have offered him much more than what Pappu had offered,” said an officer working on the case.

The sleuths are trying to find out whether Pappu was linked to Ranvijay and Mihir Kumar Jha, another alleged kingpin of the racket.

Ayan’s statement has led the police to believe that several students have gained entry to various medical colleges in the state through the racket in the past few years. The sleuths are trying to find out the exact number of such students.

“Since the racket’s reach extends beyond Bengal, it is not easy to jump to any conclusion. We have so far arrested three candidates and more names are cropping up,” said Ajoy Kumar, the deputy commissioner of police (detective department).

Kumar’s statement came a few hours after the arrest of Ruby Majumder, mother of Rupa who had cracked JEE 2007 using a dummy candidate. Rupa, too, is behind bars.

On Sunday, the police detained a candidate from Chanchol, Malda, and his father to find out whether they had links with the racket.

The student is scheduled to take admission at NRS Medical College.

On Friday, Sourav Das and his father were held in Baranagar for alleged links with the racket. Sourav has taken admission at NRS Medical College.