NEET Paper Leak: Delhi Court Sends Lokhande to Six-Day CBI Custody

PTI, May 15, 2026, New Delhi:: A Delhi court on Friday sent NEET paper leak case accused Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande to six days’ CBI custody, observing that the agency needed to uncover the entire conspiracy, identify and arrest other accused persons, recover evidence and prevent tampering with 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 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.

The judge noted that, according to Special Public Prosecutor Neetu Singh, Lokhande’s custody was required to prevent further tampering with evidence, as some accused persons had already deleted 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, 2026.

The court cited the CBI’s submission that the NEET 2026 examination was conducted on May 3, 2026, but before the scheduled date, a paper containing a substantial number of questions, which later appeared in the examination, had allegedly been leaked and circulated in an organised manner for monetary gain.

The court noted that a fact-finding inquiry conducted by the Special Operations Group (SOG), Rajasthan, 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 observed.

Regarding Lokhande’s role, the court noted that investigators alleged he was known to Shubham Khairnar and had transmitted the leaked material to him after receiving it from another accused person.

The court also noted that banking transactions worth around Rs 6 lakh had reportedly taken place between Lokhande and Khairnar.

“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.

According to the investigation, Khairnar allegedly helped facilitate Yash Yadav of Gurugram in distributing the leaked paper, and on April 29, 2026, Yadav allegedly received PDF files of the question papers through the Telegram application.

The court said files containing the Physics, Chemistry and Biology question papers had been recovered.

“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 observed.