10 hours ago
Special court grants bail to 2 men booked by CBI for defrauding NEET UG 2025 aspirants
A special court has granted bail to two individuals arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly being involved in defrauding aspiring NEET candidates by falsely promising to manipulate their NEET UG 2025 scores in exchange of money.
The accused — Sandeep Jawahar Shah, a resident of Solapur, and Salim Khubbuddin Patel, a resident of Navi Mumbai — were arrested in Mumbai and Sangli earlier this month. As per the CBI, it discovered that the two were involved in duping NEET candidates and their parents by falsely claiming to have connections with officials of the National Testing Agency (NTA) that conducts the examination.
As per the CBI, Shah initially demanded Rs 90 lakh from each candidate and agreed to accept Rs 87.5 lakh per candidate. The central agency claimed that Shah and Patel would assure candidates that they would receive details of their purportedly increased marks six hours before the official declaration of results.
The accused sought to be released on bail on the grounds that probe was completed and their custodial interrogation was not required. The pleas claimed that there was no recovery at the instance of the applicants and they'll co-operate with the trial after being released on bail.
The CBI, however, opposed the pleas stating that the same be rejected as there other accused persons are yet to be arrested and therefore the custodial interrogation of present applicants would be required.
However, special judge VP Desai observed that till date (on June 21) 'the investigating officer has nothing concrete to show that till what period the other accused will be arrested'.
Merely because the other accused persons are yet to be arrested cannot be a ground for rejection of the bail, the judge added.
The court further noted that offence under section 7(A) of Prevention of the Corruption (PC) Act is not punishable in imprisonment of life or death AND punishment prescribed is not less than three years but will extend to seven years.
'Nothing is brought on record against the applicant that he will not be available for trial. Hence discretion in the nature of bail can be exercised in the favour of applicants,' the court held and granted bail to the two on furnishing personal bond of Rs 50,000 each along with other terms and conditions.
