New Delhi: Sanjeev Kumar Singh alias ‘Mukhiya’, the alleged kingpin behind the leak of the NEET-UG 2024 examination, has secured default bail as the Central Bureau of Investigation did not file a chargesheet in the stipulated time of 90 days, ThePrint has learnt.
According to sources aware of the development, the chargesheet against him has been delayed as there are “doubts” about his involvement in the organised syndicate that allegedly compromised the examination last year.
Mukhiya was taken into custody by the agency in April this year, days after the Bihar Police Economic Offences Unit arrested him for his alleged role in the paper leak. He will continue to remain lodged in Beur jail as he faces charges in at least three other cases—Teacher Recruitment Examination conducted by Bihar Public Service Commission in early 2024, Bihar Police Constable Recruitment examination of 2023, and CGL examination of Jharkhand.
The NEET-UG case was first probed by Patna Police, which intercepted a car carrying some members of an organised gang involved in the leak of question papers of a competitive exam. As the probe developed and the angle of an organised racket emerged, the Bihar government handed over the probe to EOU.
The case subsequently went to the CBI, which had registered a case on 23 June last year, following a recommendation by the Ministry of Education amid protests and claims that the question paper of the NEET examination held on 5 May had been leaked.
Over the course of the investigation, the agency filed five chargesheets against 45 accused till November 2024. Mukhiya was the only named suspect, who didn’t get arrested by the agency until May this year.
The CBI invoked Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 109 (abetment), 409 (criminal Breach of Trust), 420 (cheating), 380 (theft), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), and 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) against all accused persons.
As the agency did not file a chargesheet against him within 90 days, Mukhiya moved an application for default bail before a Special CBI court in Patna, and Special Judge Sunil Kumar granted him bail Thursday.
ThePrint has previously reported how Mukhiya’s name surfaced in the leakage of question papers of other examinations in Bihar and Jharkhand, even before the NEET-UG paper leak. His son Shiv Kumar, who has an MBBS degree from Patna Medical College and Hospital, was also arrested by Bihar Police in the 2024 Bihar Public Service Commission Teacher Recruitment Exam case, besides a 2017 leak of the NEET-UG question paper.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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