New Delhi: A key accused in the case related to the leak of question papers for this year’s National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET, examination has sought court directions to the jail authorities to provide him with religious books such as printed texts of Hanuman Chalisa and Mangal Stotra. Accused Dhananjay Lokhande has also sought a copy of Shrimaan Yogi, a biographical novel on Chhatrapati Shivaji written by Marathi author Ranjeet Desai.
A special court in Delhi Tuesday allowed Lokhande’s plea, made through his counsel Vikram Singh, and directed the jail authorities to facilitate the handover of the books, to be supplied by his counsel or family members, subject to security clearance.
“Considering the facts and & circumstances and the submissions made on behalf of A-8, concerned jail authorities are directed to provide the religious book to the accused as mentioned in Prayer Clause (a) of the application (which shall be supplied by any of his family member/ his authorised counsel) subject to security check and as per Jail Manual Rules in this regard,” Special Judge Ajay Gupta observed in the order.
Lokhande has been in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation as part of the probe into the leak of NEET-UG 2026 examination question papers. In its chargesheet, the agency has identified Lokhande as a key point of transmission of leaked question papers from Maharashtra to Haryana and then Rajasthan.
According to the agency, Lokhande had sent his associates to collect question papers from Pune-based businesswoman Manisha Waghmare, who had obtained them from the subject-matter experts on the National Testing Agency (NTA) panel. After securing the physical copies of the leaked questions, Lokhande had allegedly passed them on to the aides of Nashik-based accused Shubham Khairnar, who later passed them on to Yash Yadav in Gurugram, from where they reached the Biwal family in Rajasthan’s Sikar.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested and charged 13 accused in the case, including the subject-expert trio—P.V. Kulkarni, Manisha Havaldar, and Manisha Mandhare. A special court notified to hear cases of paper leaks is hearing the matter daily.
Meanwhile, the court also junked the pleas of Mandhare and Havaldar seeking more time to inspect the documents and materials not relied upon by the prosecution during the trial. During the proceedings Tuesday, CBI counsels V.K. Pathak and Arjun Anand informed the court that the accused persons had inspected the unrelied-upon documents in the case for two hours each on 24 and 25 August. Moreover, Havaldar’s counsel had also inspected such materials for a total of six to seven hours on 25, 27 and 31 August, the court was informed.
However, Mandhare and Havaldar’s counsels sought more time citing their busy schedules, which the court rejected.
“This court does not find any substance in such submissions. As per the mandate of the amended Act, the trial of the present case has to be carried out expeditiously and on day-to-day basis and as such, each day is important and thus, Ld. Counsels for accused persons were duty bound to utilize maximum time for inspection of the unrelied documents on the days provided to them for inspection,” Special Judge Gupta said.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)