Patna, April 10: In a significant development in the ongoing investigation into the NEET-UG 2024 question paper leak, the Bihar Police have announced a reward of Rs 3 lakh for any information leading to the arrest of Sanjeev Kumar Singh alias Sanjeev Mukhiya, the alleged mastermind behind the scandal.

A formal letter was issued from the office of Kundan Krishnan, Additional Director General (ADG) of Bihar Police Headquarters, notifying the public about the bounty. A reward has also been announced for two others accused.

The officials said that police personnel or any individual who successfully helps to arrest the absconding accused will get the reward.

The notification will be valid for two years, which means if any police personnel arrest these three criminals within two years, they are entitled to the reward amount.

The other two accused are Shubham Kumar and Rajkishore Kumar. Bihar Police announced a bounty of Rs 1 lakh each on their heads. Subham is a resident of Beechbazar under the jurisdiction of Sohsarai Police Station in the Nalanda district and is involved in two cases.

Raj Kishore Kumar was also involved in two cases and is a resident of Bakhtari village under the Karpi Police station limit in the Arwal district.

The police have urged the public to come forward with credible information about the whereabouts of the absconding accused.

All identities of informants will be kept strictly confidential, and they will be entitled to the announced rewards, the officials have said.

Sanjeev Kumar Singh, alias Sanjeev Mukhiya, is an accused in the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak case registered initially in Shastri Nagar Police Station (Case No. 358/2024), Constable Recruitment scam, Teachers Recruitment scam, and another pending case. Mukhiya is a native of Shahpur Balwa village under the limit of Nagarnausa Police Station in Nalanda district.

The NEET-UG paper leak scandal was unearthed on May 5, 2024, when the Patna Police detected irregularities during the nationwide medical entrance exam.

The investigation was first handled by the Shastri Nagar police, then transferred to the Economic Offences Unit (EOU), and finally handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 23, 2024.

The CBI’s FIR named eight accused, including Sanjeev Mukhiya, Ayush Raj, Rocky, Amit Anand, Nitish Kumar, Bittu, Akhilesh, and Sikandar Yadavendu. Sanjeev Mukhiya has a known history of orchestrating high-profile examination frauds and is now among the most wanted criminals in Bihar.

Kolkata, April 10: The Kolkata Police have registered two cases against the teaching and non-teaching staff, who lost jobs after the Supreme Court order, for staging protests.

The teachers were severely beaten up by the cops on Wednesday after they protested against the job loss in front of the office of the district inspector of schools at Kasba in South Kolkata.

Of the two cases, one has been registered suo motu by the city police. The second case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by the office of the district inspector of schools.

The job losers, all reportedly “genuine” ones, protested in front of the district inspector of schools at Kasba in South Kolkata, demanding immediate action by the state government and WBSSC in segregating the “genuine” candidates from the “tainted” ones. The tainted ones got the jobs against payment of money.

Last week, the Supreme Court upheld a previous order by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court in April 2024, cancelling the entire panel of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs on the grounds that the state government and the commission failed to segregate the “genuine” candidates from the “tainted” ones.

On Wednesday, the situation turned serious in front of the office of the district inspector of schools at Kasba as the protesters tried to enter the office by removing the police barricades and breaking open the lock at the main gate.

The police resorted to a lathi charge, which resulted in injuries to several protesters. However, state Education Minister Bratya Basu, Chief Secretary, and Kolkata Police Commissioner justified the police action, and the commissioner even went to the extent of claiming that the police were forced to take “mild action” to keep the situation under control and prevent additional damages.

As the information surfaced that two separate cases had been registered against the protesters, the state government came under scathing criticism from the opposition parties.

Leaders from both the BJP and CPI(M) have claimed that the development has exposed the insensitive face of the current state administration. At the time the report was filed, there was no reaction from any Trinamool Congress leader in the matter.

Lausanne, April 10: Cricket at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games will be played in the T20 format, with six teams competing in both the men’s and women’s tournaments, the Organisers said.

The event programme and athlete quotas for LA 2028 was approved by the Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday.

The organisers said that a total of 90 athlete quotas have been allocated for each gender, allowing every team to name a 15-member squad.

The cricket venues for LA28 are yet to be confirmed.

Cricket is one of five new sports to feature at the upcoming Olympics. The IOC approved cricket’s inclusion for LA28 two years ago, along with baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash.

Cricket was included in the LA28 sports programme during the 141st I0C Session in Mumbai along with Flag Football, Lacrosse, Squash, and Baseball/SoftbalI. It is already part of two of the other multi-sport extravaganzas, the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

Both men’s and women’s cricket tournaments, played in the T20 format, were part of the Asian Games in 2010, 2014 and 2023.

Eight teams participated at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games while at the Hangzhou Asian Games, 14 teams competed in the men’s event while nine played the women’s competition.

With the inclusion of boxing, approved by the IOC Session in March 2025, the LA28 sports programme is composed of 31 sports, with an additional five sports proposed by the Organising Committee and approved by the IOC in 2023.

With a total of 351 medal events, 22 more than at Paris 2024 (329), the LA28 programme maintains the core athlete quota of 10,500, with an extra 698 quota places allocated for the five sports proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee (baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash).

In the initial sports programme, with 10,500 athletes, the number of female athletes is 5,333 and the number of male athletes 5,167. The additional sports add 322 female athletes and 376 male athletes. In addition, six mixed events were added to the event programme. Out of 351 events, there are 161 women’s events, 165 men’s events and 25 mixed events.