A Delhi court on Friday sent NEET paper leak case accused Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande to six days of CBI custody, observing that custodial interrogation was necessary to uncover the full conspiracy, identify other accused persons, recover evidence and prevent tampering, reported PTI.
Special CBI judge Ajay Gupta was hearing the agency’s plea seeking six days’ custodial interrogation of Lokhande, who was arrested from Ahilyanagar in Maharashtra and produced before the court on 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,” the judge said.
The court noted submissions by the Special Public Prosecutor that custodial interrogation was required to prevent further tampering of evidence, as some accused persons had allegedly deleted incriminating data from their mobile phones.
“Therefore … the CBI seeking six days of 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 court said.
Five other accused, Yash Yadav, Mangilal Khatik, Vikash Biwal, Dinesh Biwal and Shubham Khairnar , were earlier sent to CBI custody on Thursday till May 20.
The court recorded CBI submissions that the NEET 2026 examination was conducted on May 3, but prior to the exam, a paper containing a substantial number of questions that later appeared in the test was leaked and circulated for monetary gain.
It also noted that a fact-finding inquiry by the Special Operations Group (SOG), Rajasthan, had reportedly confirmed the authenticity of some 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 alleged role, the court noted that he was known to co-accused Shubham and had transmitted the leaked material to him after receiving it from another accused.
It also recorded that there were alleged banking transactions of around Rs 6 lakh between Lokhande and Shubham.
“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.
The court further noted that Shubham allegedly facilitated Yash Yadav in distributing the leaked paper, and that Yadav had received PDF files of the question paper through Telegram on April 29.
It said files containing Physics, Chemistry and Biology question papers were recovered during the investigation.
“Allegedly, after accused Yash Yadav received the leaked question paper, he struck a deal with co-accused persons, and he, as well as other co-accused persons, further circulated the same for monetary gain,” the court said.
(With inputs from PTI)