New Delhi, June 24: A Delhi court on Wednesday extended till July 8 the judicial custody of two accused in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The accused P.V. Kulkarni and Shivaraj Motegaonkar were produced before the Rouse Avenue Court on the expiry of their earlier 14-day judicial custody.

The court directed that both accused remain in judicial custody till July 8.

According to the CBI, Kulkarni, a retired Chemistry professor from Maharashtra’s Latur, was the mastermind behind the alleged paper leak network.

The probe agency has claimed that he was associated with the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) question paper-setting process for several years and misused his access to leak examination content to selected candidates through special coaching sessions conducted in Pune.

Motegaonkar, the director of Latur-based RCC Coaching Institute, is alleged to have played a key role in the dissemination of the leaked paper.

Investigators claim that examination questions and their answers reached him nearly 10 days before the conduct of the NEET-UG 2026 examination.

According to the CBI, Motegaonkar allegedly procured the leaked paper through Kulkarni and co-accused Manisha Mandhare, who is suspected to have played a crucial role in the Biology paper leak.

The CBI had earlier arrested Motegaonkar, stating that he owned the RCC Coaching Institute, which operates nine branches with its main centre in Latur and prepares students for the NEET-UG examination.

The probe agency said searches conducted at the institute and Motegaonkar’s residence led to the recovery of a Chemistry question bank containing questions identical to those that appeared in the now-cancelled NEET-UG 2026 examination held on May 3.

The CBI registered the case on May 12 based on a written complaint received from the Department of Higher Education under the Union Ministry of Education. Following registration of the FIR, special teams were constituted, and searches were carried out at multiple locations across the country.

Earlier this month, the Rouse Avenue Court extended till June 29 the judicial custody of 10 other accused in the case, including Yash Yadav, Mangilal Biwal, Dinesh Biwal, Vikas Biwal, Dhananjay Lokhande, Tejas Harshad Shah, Shubham Khairnar, Manisha Waghmare, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar and Dr Manoj Shirure.

The court had also permitted the CBI to interrogate certain accused inside jail as part of its continuing investigation. The CBI has so far arrested 13 accused in connection with the alleged network involved in procuring and circulating NEET-UG question papers before the examination.

Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency successfully conducted the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination on June 21 after the original examination was cancelled amid concerns over irregularities.

More than 20 lakh medical aspirants appeared at 5,440 examination centres across India and 14 centres abroad. Authorities deployed nearly 7 lakh personnel, including examination staff, police officers, observers and administrative officials, to ensure the smooth conduct of the re-test.

Over 95,000 examination rooms were monitored through more than 1.38 lakh CCTV cameras, while over 51,000 signal jammers were installed to prevent electronic malpractice.

The re-examination was conducted under extensive security measures, including Aadhaar-based biometric verification, facial authentication, two-layer frisking, real-time surveillance and command-and-control centre monitoring, aimed at ensuring transparency and preserving the integrity of one of the country’s largest entrance examinations.

New Delhi, June 24: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday levelled serious allegations of land grabbing and corruption in Karnataka against Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and his son, Priyank Kharge, involving the Siddhartha Vihar Trust, claiming that there are multiple instances where the Kharge family has “usurped land belonging to the poor”.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, party spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari stated that Mallikarjun Kharge and his son are involved in corruption and land grabbing in Karnataka through a trust named the Siddharth Vihar Trust.

The trust includes Mallikarjun Kharge, his son Priyank Kharge, his son-in-law, and his wife as members.

“Mallikarjun Kharge and his son, through a trust, are involved in land grabbing and corruption in Karnataka. The name of this trust is Siddhartha Vihara Trust. The trust includes Mallikarjun Kharge, his son Priyank Kharge, his son-in-law, and his wife. I will place before you not one but multiple cases of alleged corruption, showing how Mallikarjun Kharge, through this trust, occupied different parcels of land and used his power and influence to grab land belonging to the poor and attempted land loot at various locations.”

Bhandari presented multiple cases of alleged corruption involving Mallikarjun Kharge, demonstrating how the Congress chief used the trust to take possession of various land parcels, leveraged his power and influence to “usurp land belonging to the poor”, and attempted to “grab land” in several locations.

The first case of land loot, Bhandari claimed, is when in 2024, the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) allotted five acres of land to the Siddhartha Vihar Trust when the Congress government was in power, “under the pretext of research and development in aerospace and defence”.

The BJP spokesperson stated that the land was for industrial use but was instead granted to the trust.

“The question arises: did Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyank Kharge misuse their power and influence to grab five acres of industrial land in Karnataka, worth Rs 100 crore, through a private trust? Remember, Rahul Gandhi and the entire Gandhi-Vadra family – Robert Vadra, his brother-in-law – have also faced similar land grab allegations, and cases are ongoing. The same modus operandi that the Gandhi-Vadra family used for land loot has been repeated by Mallikarjun Kharge through the Siddharth Vihara Trust — a prime industrial land worth Rs 100 crore,” he added.

Bhandari stated that the Congress government in Karnataka allotted 19 acres of land to Kharge’s private trust.

“This meant that 19 acres of government land effectively became the private property of a trust whose members include Mallikarjun Kharge and his family. Did Mallikarjun Kharge use his power and influence to usurp this 19-acre plot in Gulbarga? The Congress party must answer why this land was misappropriated; Kharge faces allegations of corruption regarding this land grab and needs to come forward with a response,” he stated.

Referring to another instance, he remarked that the Siddharth Vihar Trust engaged in a “highly unusual act by fielding a ‘dummy’ seller”.

“The trust intended to transfer the land, and it ultimately ended up permanently with Mallikarjun Kharge’s private trust in Gulbarga. To this day, no one knows the identity of this seller. Thus, as a third method of corruption, Mallikarjun Kharge employed a dummy seller,” Bhandari added.

“Just as Robert Vadra grabs land wherever he sees it – and cases are ongoing against him – exactly the same is happening with the Siddhartha Vihara Trust. Wherever there is land in Karnataka, Mallikarjun Kharge, using his influence, grabs it through this trust. Kharge will have to answer for this,” the BJP leader added.

Srinagar, June 24: Hundreds of Shia Muslim mourners on Wednesday joined the Muharram procession in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar city as authorities made elaborate security arrangements for the smooth and peaceful conduct of the procession.

Black flags dotted the roads as volunteers opened stalls to provide refreshments to people joining the Muharram procession, which began at Guru Bazar and culminated in the Dalgate area.

A huge number of people wearing black dresses beat their chests to remember the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam.

While the volunteers at the refreshment stalls provided water and cold drinks to the mourners, the medical department had set up makeshift camps along the procession route to provide healthcare facilities.

Mourners murmured elegies in remembrance of the Martys of Karbala.

The procession moved with absolute discipline through Budshah Chowk, the Maulana Azad Road and finally to the Dalgate area.

To streamline the movement of mourners, traffic department officials had made special route regulation arrangements providing traffic-free passage to the procession and an alternative route to those coming from outside the city.

Special parking arrangements were made for people joining the procession in Batmaloo and other places beyond the route designated for the procession.

No untoward incident occurred during the procession as senior civil and police officials remained present.

Muharram processions were disallowed by the authorities after terrorism started in Kashmir in the 1990s. With the improvement in the overall situation, authorities have been allowing this traditional procession during the last three years.

As per the Shias, Imam Hussain went on the invitation of the people in Kufa along with his family and supporters to make peace, while the army of Yezid surrounded them at Karbala near the banks of the Euphrates River. Denying water even to the minor children during the siege. Imam Hussain refused to surrender to evil and chose martyrdom to write the history of the triumph of truth over evil with his blood.

The Battle of Karbala was a tragic historical event fought on October 10, 680 CE (10th of Muharram, 61 AH) on the plains near the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq. It resulted in the massacre of Husayn ibn Ali — the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad — and his small caravan by the massive army of the Umayyad Caliph, Yazid. Although Shia Muslims carry out mourning processions during the month of Muharram, the mourning to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain is common to both Shia and Sunni Muslims alike.