New Delhi, 17 May (H.S.): The Rouse Avenue Court has sent another accused in the NEET paper leak case, Manisha Mandhare, to 14 days of custody with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Special Judge Colette Rashmi Kujur passed the order granting the CBI custody.

Manisha Mandhare is the ninth accused arrested in connection with the NEET paper leak case. She was reportedly part of the panel responsible for setting the examination question paper on behalf of the National Testing Agency (NTA). Mandhare was arrested from a hotel in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

She has been accused of conspiring with chemistry teacher P.V. Rao and Manisha Waghmare to leak the NEET examination question paper. P.V. Rao and Manisha Waghmare had earlier been sent to 10 days of CBI custody by the court on May 16.

Prior to this, on May 15, the court had sent Dhananjay Lokhande to six days of CBI custody. According to the allegations, Manisha Waghmare had provided the NEET question paper to Dhananjay Lokhande, who later passed it on to Shubham Khairwar.

On May 14, the court had also sent five accused persons to seven days of CBI custody. Those accused included Shubham Khairnar from Nashik, Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal, and Dinesh Biwal from Jaipur, along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram.

Shubham Khairnar was arrested from Mumbai on May 13 and was subsequently brought to Delhi on a two-day transit remand. He is a resident of Nashik in Maharashtra.

According to the CBI, the NEET examination question paper was circulated in PDF format through WhatsApp and Telegram even before the examination held on May 3. The CBI registered an FIR in the case on May 12 based on a complaint filed by Varun Bhardwaj, Director of the Higher Education Department of the NTA.

As per the investigating agency, in April, Nashik-based Shubham contacted Yash Yadav and informed him that Mangilal had approached him seeking arrangements for the NEET question paper for his son in exchange for ₹10–12 lakh. On April 29, Yash Yadav allegedly provided PDF copies of the Physics, Chemistry, and Biology question papers through Telegram.

After obtaining the question papers, Mangilal allegedly took printouts and distributed them among his son Aman Biwal, relatives, and several acquaintances.

It may be noted that the NEET examination conducted on May 3 was cancelled following allegations of a question paper leak. Subsequently, the Central Government ordered a CBI investigation into the matter. The re-examination is now scheduled to be held on June 21.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar