New Delhi, June 1 (H.S.): The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi has remanded three accused arrested in the NEET paper leak case to judicial custody until June 15. The trio was produced before the court after the expiry of their Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody on Monday.

The court ordered that pediatric specialist Dr. Manoj Shirure, Physics teacher Tejas Harshadkumar Shah of Dr. Abhang Prabhu Medical Academy coaching institute in Pune, and Manisha Sanjay Havaldar be sent to judicial custody. With these arrests, the total number of accused apprehended in the case has reached 13.

Earlier, on May 17, the court had remanded Manisha Mandhare to CBI custody until June 1. Mandhare was a member of the panel responsible for setting question papers on behalf of the National Testing Agency (NTA). She was arrested from a hotel in Mathura.

Manisha Mandhare has been accused of conspiring to leak the NEET question paper in collaboration with Chemistry teacher P.V. Rao and Manisha Waghmare. The court had remanded P.V. Rao and Manisha Waghmare to CBI custody on May 16.

Prior to that, on May 15, the court had sent Dhananjay Lokhande to CBI custody. Investigators allege that Manisha Waghmare provided the NEET question papers to Lokhande, who subsequently passed them on to Shubham Khairwar.

On May 14, the court had remanded five accused — Shubham Khairnar of Nashik, Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal, and Dinesh Biwal of Jaipur, and Yash Yadav of Gurugram — to CBI custody. Shubham Khairnar was arrested in Mumbai on May 13 and was brought to Delhi on a two-day transit remand.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar