NEET paper leak: Lokhande sent to 6-day CBI custody
A Delhi court on Friday sent NEET paper leak case accused Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande to six days’ CBI custody, saying the agency needed to unearth the entire conspiracy, identify and arrest others, recover evidence and prevent tampering of evidence.
Special CBI judge Ajay Gupta was hearing the federal agency’s plea seeking six days’ custodial interrogation of Lokhande, who had been arrested from Ahilyanagar in Maharashtra, and brought to the court on a transit remand.
“Allegedly, there is a larger conspiracy angle present in this case; the investigation is at its very initial stage, and the custody of the accused Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande has been sought to unearth the entire conspiracy as well as arrest all the other active members of this organised paper leak gang and also for the recovery of all the relevant incriminating material,” Judge Gupta said.
He noted that, according to Special Public Prosecutor Neetu Singh, Lokhande’s custody was required to prevent further tampering with the evidence, as some of the accused persons had already deleted the incriminating data from their mobile phones.
“Therefore, the CBI seeking six days’ police custody remand of the accused is hereby allowed, and he is remanded to police custody for six days, subject to his medical examination,” the judge said.
Five more accused, Yash Yadav, Mangilal Khatik, Vikash Biwal, Dinesh Biwal and Shubham Khairnar, were earlier remanded to CBI custody on Thursday till May 20. The court cited CBI’s submission that the NEET 2026 exam was conducted on May 3, but before the scheduled date, a paper containing a substantial number of questions, which also appeared in the exam, was leaked and circulated in an organised manner for monetary gain.
It said that a fact-finding inquiry was conducted by the Special Operations Group (SOG), Rajasthan, which reportedly confirmed the authenticity of certain leaked questions.
“It has been submitted that until now, six accused persons, namely, Yash Yadav, Mangilal Khatik, Vikash Biwal, Dinesh Biwal, Shubham Madhukar Khairnar and Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande, have been arrested and, allegedly, they are part of the organised gang who, in conspiracy with each other, leaked and circulated the confidential NEET examination paper 2026 for monetary gain,” the court said.
On Lokhande’s role, the court noted that according to the probe, he was known to Shubham.
It said that after receiving the material from another accused, he transmitted it to Shubham, and that there had been banking transactions of around `6 lakh between them.
“Allegedly, as per the CBI investigation, it has come to light that accused Shubham Madhukar Khairnar had obtained the said paper from accused Dhananjay, who had obtained the same from co-accused Manisha Waghmare (a resident of Pune),” the court said.
It said that Shubham allegedly helped facilitate Yash Yadav (of Gurugram) with the distribution of the leaked paper, and on April 29, Yadav got the PDF files of the question papers through the Telegram app.
Files containing the question paper of Physics, Chemistry and Biology have been recovered, it said.
“Allegedly, after accused Yash Yadav received the leaked question paper, he struck a deal with (other) co-accused persons, and he, as well as other co-accused persons, further circulated the same for monetary gain,” the court said.
