NEET 2024 leak: CBI says no evidence linking key accused Sanjeev Mukhiya to paper’s theft or distribution

The CBI, in a statement on Thursday, explained why it had not filed a chargesheet against him.

“In 2024, Bihar Police had detected the theft of the question paper of the NEET (UG) 2024 examination and registered a case in this regard. Prima facie suspicion had emerged at that stage against one Sanjeev Kumar alias Sanjeev Mukhiya may have been involved in the theft, as he was found to have been involved in certain other examination paper theft/leak cases. He was accordingly named as an accused in the said FIR by Bihar Police. The case was subsequently transferred to the CBI for investigation,” it said.

“During the course of its investigation, CBI identified each and every person involved in the theft and onward distribution of the stolen NEET (UG) 2024 question paper, as also each and every candidate who benefited from use of the stolen paper. Multiple chargesheets have accordingly been filed by CBI against 45 persons before the jurisdictional court in Patna,” it said.

“In the course of its investigation, CBI did not come across any evidence to establish the involvement of Mukhiya in the theft or distribution of the stolen NEET (UG) 2024 question paper. Having conducted a detailed and thorough investigation into the case, CBI is satisfied that the entire conspiracy and the persons involved therein stand identified,” it said.

“Mukhiya had remained absconding during the relevant time. He was subsequently arrested by Bihar Police in connection with those other cases. Since he was a named accused in the FIR in the NEET-UG 2024 case as well, CBI took his police custody for the purpose of examination in that case,” it said. “As no evidence of his involvement in NEET-UG 2024 case emerged during investigation, CBI did not file any chargesheet against him in this case, and he has accordingly availed bail in the NEET-UG case. Mukhiya remained in judicial custody after his bail in the CBI case, being an accused in certain other cases being investigated by Bihar police.”

“CBI has conducted a detailed investigation into the NEET (UG) 2024 theft case, identified all the persons involved, and ensured that none of them has escaped the process of law,” it said. “This issue was clarified in the year 2024 itself adequately. The narrative going around now about his deliberate omission is factually incorrect.”

Last year’s arrest and aftermath

In April last year, a joint team of personnel from the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Bihar’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) and Patna’s Special Task Force had conducted the raid that led to Mukhia’s arrest.

“He was constantly on the move, slipping between states and borders, from Uttar Pradesh to Nepal,” Nayyar Hasnain Khan, the Additional Director General of the EOU, had told The Indian Express at the time.

Mukhiya, a former technical assistant at Udyan Vidyalaya in Nalanda’s Noorsarai, had allegedly orchestrated what the EOU had called an “organised and professional” interstate solver gang. “He exploited every layer of the examination system,” Khan had said. “He identified desperate parents with funds to secure their children’s futures, and charged anywhere between Rs 8-15 lakh per candidate, even higher in some cases,” the officer had said at the time.

Mukhiya was alleged to have manipulated vulnerabilities at every stage of the exam machinery, from printing presses to transportation to centres. “In Hazaribagh, he arranged for question paper photos to be extracted with coordination from insiders,” Khan had said.

This wasn’t Mukhiya’s first brush with the law. According to Khan, in 2010, he was allegedly linked to exam cheating using Bluetooth devices in Bihar. In 2016, Uttarakhand Police arrested him for a constable recruitment exam leak, and around the same period, Bihar Police detained him for a block-level exam scam targeting SC/ST candidates. “Despite jail time, he resumed his illicit trade. He found loopholes in the system and figured out how to exploit them,” Khan noted.

Mukhiya’s criminal roots trace back to the 1990s, when he allegedly worked under Ranjeet Don, a notorious paper leak figure from Hilsa, Nalanda.

Mukhiya’s son, Dr Shiv Kumar, an MBBS graduate from Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), was arrested in 2024 for the TRE-3 leak.

His wife, Mamata Devi, served as mukhiya of Bhutaha Khar Panchayat from 2016 to 2021. This was what got Sanjeev the moniker, ‘Mukhiya’. A former Janata Dal (United) member, Mamata Devi contested the 2020 Bihar Assembly election from Harnaut on a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) ticket, losing to JD(U)’s Hari Narayan Singh.

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