The CBI Special Court in Bihar's Patna on Friday granted bail to Sanjeev Kumar alias Sanjeev Mukhiya, the prime accused in the 2024 NEET Question Paper Leak case, after the probe agency failed to file a chargesheet within 90 days of arrest.
Sanjeev Kumar, alias Sanjeev Mukhiya, a key accused in the NEET 2024 question paper leak case, has been granted bail after CBI special court, located within the Patna civil court premises, ordered his release from judicial custody. The order was made according to Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which stipulates that a charge sheet must be filed within 90 days of arrest.
Based on confidential information, a team from the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police had arrested Sanjeev Mukhiya from an apartment in Patna’s Saguna Mor area on April 25. Following his arrest, the CBI took him into four-day custody and conducted an intensive interrogation regarding his role in a widespread paper leak scam.
Mukhiya had submitted an application to Judge Sunil Kumar Singh, stating that he had been in judicial custody for 90 days, but the CBI had not yet filed a charge sheet against him. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court applied Section 167 of the CrPC and ordered Mukhiya’s release on bail.
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NEET-2024 Exam Paper Leak
NEET 2024 exam was conducted nationwide by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5. What began as routine policing by Amar Kumar, in-charge of the Shastrinagar police station in Patna, quickly escalated into a multi-agency investigation, revealing an extensive tampering operation that has now led to the arrest of 49 individuals.
Initially, local police arrested several suspects, but as the paper leak became apparent, the case was handed over to the Economic Offenses Unit. With public outrage mounting, the central government took decisive action and transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which officially registered a First Information Report (FIR) on June 23, 2024.
Since taking over, the CBI has been probing, filing a series of charge sheets focusing on the network of culprits. The first charge sheet, lodged on July 1, 2024, named 13 individuals. On September 19, 2024, a formal charge sheet was submitted against six more accused. The second supplementary charge sheet followed on October 7, 2024, targeting 21 accused who were already incarcerated.
The third supplementary charge sheet, filed on November 7, 2024, named one more individual, and the fourth on November 22, 2024, indicted four additional suspects. In total, charge sheets have now been filed against 45 of the 49 arrested individuals, highlighting organized malpractice within one of India’s most competitive entrance examinations.
