New Delhi [India], September 18 (ANI): The Rouse Avenue court on Friday extended the judicial custody of 14th accused Sheshrav Bajrang Suryavanshi in connection with the NEET UG paper leak case.
He is an alleged close associate of Accused Shubham Khairnar and provided the NEET UG Paper to candidates before the examination. Suryavanshi is stated to belong to Pune, Maharashtra.
Special CBI judge Ajay Gupta extended the judicial custody of Sheshrav Bajrang Suryavanshi till September 30. He was produced before the court after the expiry of judicial custody.
While seeking extension of Judicial custody, the CBI submitted that the accused is required to be kept under judicial custody as the analysis of digital devices seized from various candidates is still underway.
The CBI said that the accused needs to be confronted with the evidence by taking his further custody at a later date during the course of further investigation.
Meanwhile, to prevent tampering with evidence and also destruction of evidence; to prevent influencing the witnesses and to avert the risk of his absconding, the accused may be remanded to Judicial Custody, the CBI prayed.
The CBI has already filed a charge sheet against 13 accused. The court has already taken cognisance of the charge sheet and is scheduled to hear arguments on charge Monday onward on a day-to-day basis.
The 13 accused include Manisha Mandhare, Manisha Sanjay Hawaldar, Manisha Waghmare, Prahalad Kulkarni, Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, Dr. Manoj Shirure, Tejas Harshad Shah, Shubham Khairnar, Dhananjay Lokhande, Yash Yadav, Mangilal Biwal, Dinesh Biwal and Vikas Biwal.
Accused Sheshrav Bajrang Suryawanshi alias Raj Suryawanshi was arrested on September 2 by the CBI. The court had remanded him to CBI custody for 2 days on September 3. Later, he was remanded to judicial custody on September 5.
The agency said that during his custodial interrogation, it was revealed that the accused Sheshrav arranged the purported NEET-UG 2026 leaked questions to various candidates prior to the examination and collected money from the candidates/their families, in criminal conspiracy with accused Shubham Khairnar.
It has further been revealed that the accused brought the candidates to a house at Nanded, where the purported leaked questions of NEET UG 2026 were given to students. He had collected the original documents/educational certificates of the candidates as surety for subsequent payments.
The CBI submitted that the further investigation against the arrested accused and his close associates is at a crucial stage. He was having close association with charge-sheeted accused Subham Madhukar Khairnar. (ANI)
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