New Delhi (Gurpreet Singh)— A Delhi court on Wednesday remanded a Latur-based paediatrician and a physics tutor to five days of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody in connection with the escalating NEET-UG paper leak scandal. Special Judge Vidya Prakash, acting as the Duty Metropolitan Magistrate, accepted the agency’s application to interrogating both individuals further to unearth the deeper conspiracy behind the leakage and illicit distribution of the national medical entrance examination papers.
The first accused, Dr. Manoj Shirure, was arrested by the CBI for allegedly playing a critical role in facilitating access to leaked chemistry questions for three students, including the son of Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, who runs the prominent Renukai Chemistry Classes (RCC) in Latur, Maharashtra. According to investigators, Shirure obtained the leaked test material from an empanelled NTA paper setter and translator, P.V. Kulkarni. The agency, which has already taken Motegaonkar and Kulkarni into custody, alleged that Shirure accepted ₹5 lakh to distribute the content, with the cash subsequently recovered from the residence of his sister.
The second accused, Tejas Harshadkumar Shah, a physics instructor at the Pune-based coaching institute Dr. Abhang Prabhu Medical Academy (APMA), was arrested for his direct involvement in distributing leaked physics questions. Investigators stated that Shah received the physics question sets on his mobile phone via another arrested empanelled expert, Manisha Havaldar, and subsequently passed the material on to students enrolled at his institute.
With these two fresh arrests, the total number of individuals apprehended by the CBI in this nation-wide examination scandal has risen to 13. The federal agency informed the court that custodial interrogation is vital to confront the accused with digital evidence and trace where else the leaked exam materials were utilized across their network. Meanwhile, co-accused P.V. Kulkarni and Shivraj Motegaonkar were produced on the expiry of their police remand and were sent to 14-day judicial custody till June 10. Following allegations of massive irregularities, the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the original May 3 examination, and a nationwide re-examination has been officially scheduled for June 21.
