28-04-2025
Coordinated with inter-state aides to leak NEET paper: ‘Kingpin' Sanjiv Mukhiya tells CBI
The alleged mastermind of the 2024 NEET-UG paper leak, Sanjiv Kumar alias Sanjiv Mukhiya, told the CBI during questioning that he 'coordinated with his inter-state accomplices and people from Bihar' to commit the crime and that his aides had provided logistics to members of the 'solver gang', sources said.
Bihar's Economic Offences Unit (EOU) arrested Saniiv Mukhiya and two others from Danapur on Friday in connection with five cases, including two lodged in 2024.
He is one of the main accused in the Patna NEET-UG paper leak case of May last year. The case, which was first probed by local police, was later handed over to the EOU. The CBI subsequently took over the case. So far, at least 20 chargesheets have been filed in the case and 37 people, including Mukhiya, has been arrested.
Mukhiya has also been named the main accused in the 2023 teachers recruitment examination (TRE-II) paper leak.
Mukhiya was on Saturday remanded in EOU custody for three days. He was questioned by both EOU and CBI officers.
Sources said the CBI asked Mukhiya to reconstruct the events leading to the NEET paper leak in Patna and about the 'solver gang', which would allegedly hire scholars to solve leaked question papers of competitive examinations. The questions also touched on his connection with the owners of Patna's Learn Boys Hostel and Play School, where some exaninees were allegedly called to revise solved answers a day before the NEET-UG examination. Burnt solved answers were found from the premises of the school by Patna police.
Mukhiya, who also faced cases of cheating and fraud in 2012 and 2013, is from Nagarnausa, Nalanda. He got the monicker, Mukhiya, because his wife Mamata Devi had been a village head. Devi had unsuccessfully contested the 2020 Assembly elections.
