A special CBI court in Patna has framed charges against 52 individuals accused in the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak case, setting the stage for the formal trial. Special Judge Mohammad Rustam framed the charges on Thursday in Special CBI Court-2 and ordered the prosecution to begin presenting witnesses and documentary evidence from October 1. The Central Bureau of Investigation had filed a chargesheet naming 54 individuals, but the court separated the proceedings for two accused, while the agency did not charge Sanjeev Mukhiya due to insufficient evidence.
School Officials and Key Accused Among Those Charged
Those facing trial include Dr Ehsanul Haque, principal of Oasis School in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, and vice-principal Imtiyaz Alam. The list of charged individuals also features Sikandar Yadavendu, Nitish Kumar, Akhilesh Kumar, Amit Anand, Ayush Kumar alias Ayush Raj, Ashutosh Kumar, Roshan Kumar, Manish Prakash, Awadhesh Kumar, Anurag Yadav, Abhishek Kumar, Shiv Nandan Kumar, Dipendra Sharma, and Sandeep Kumar. Special Public Prosecutor Satyajit represented the Delhi unit of the CBI during the proceedings, which focus on an organised operation that compromised an entrance test taken by nearly 23 lakh students across 4,750 centres in India and abroad.
Vehicle Interception in Patna Sparked Initial Investigation
The probe originated from secret intelligence gathered by Patna’s Shastrinagar police station regarding a syndicate operating around test centres in a Renault vehicle. Officers intercepted the suspected car and detained occupants Sikandar Yadavendu, Akhilesh Kumar, and Bittu Kumar. A search of the vehicle yielded photocopies of examination admit cards belonging to candidates Abhishek Kumar, Shivnandan Kumar, Ayush Raj, and Anurag Yadav, alongside two mobile phones recovered from Yadavendu.
Arrest of Candidate Led to Wider Paper Leak Trail
Interrogations following the vehicle stop revealed that question papers had been procured with assistance from Sanjeev Singh, Nitish Kumar, and Amit Anand for candidates sitting the examination that day. Acting on this intelligence, police raided DAV School in Punaichak and arrested candidate Ayush Raj during the test. Raj subsequently stated that question papers were handed to him at Learn Boys School and Learn Play School, prompting investigators to trace the broader network. The special court will begin recording witness testimony and evaluating prosecution materials at the start of October.
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