New Delhi, June 29: A Delhi court on Monday extended till July 11 the judicial custody of 10 accused in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The accused were produced before the Rouse Avenue Court through video conferencing on the expiry of their earlier judicial custody.

The court extended the judicial custody of Yash Yadav, Mangilal Biwal, Dinesh Biwal, Vikas Biwal, Dhananjay Lokhande, Tejas Harshad Shah, Shubham Khairnar, Manisha Waghmare, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar and Dr Manoj Shirure till July 11.

Earlier, on June 15, the Rouse Avenue Court had extended the judicial custody of the 10 accused till June 29. The court had also permitted the CBI to interrogate accused Shubham Khairnar, Manisha Waghmare and Dhananjay Lokhande inside jail on June 17, 18 and 19, respectively, for one hour each as part of the ongoing investigation.

The CBI has so far arrested 13 accused in the case and is investigating an alleged network involved in procuring and circulating NEET-UG question papers ahead of the examination.

According to the probe agency, Latur-based doctor Manoj Shirure played a key role in facilitating three students, including the son of an accused coaching centre owner, in obtaining Chemistry questions from alleged kingpin P.V. Kulkarni before the examination.

Tejas Harshad Shah, a Physics faculty member at Pune-based Abhang Prabhu Medical Academy (APMA), is alleged to have received leaked Physics questions from co-accused Manisha Sanjay Havaldar.

The CBI has further alleged that Pune-based education consultant Manisha Waghmare acted as an intermediary in mobilising students who allegedly paid lakhs of rupees to attend special coaching sessions where questions that later appeared in the NEET-UG 2026 examination were dictated and discussed.

According to the probe agency, Waghmare facilitated prospective candidates for special coaching classes conducted by NTA-appointed senior Botany teacher Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, who is suspected to be the co-mastermind behind the Biology paper leak, while Chemistry professor P.V. Kulkarni has been identified as the alleged kingpin of the paper leak network.

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

More than 20 lakh medical aspirants appeared for the re-examination at 5,440 centres across India and 14 centres abroad.

Nearly 7 lakh personnel, including examination staff, police personnel, observers and administrative officials, were deployed to ensure the smooth conduct of the examination.

More than 95,000 examination rooms were monitored through over 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.

Pune, June 29: A sessions court in Maharashtra pronounced a death sentence on Monday for 65-year-old Bhimrao Kamble, who was convicted last week for the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Pune’s Nasrapur last month.

Pune District and Sessions Court Judge S.R. Salunkhe awarded capital punishment to the convict.

The prosecution had cited 12 key Supreme Court judgments regarding such cases in its arguments, including that this case falls within the category of “rarest of rare” cases defined by the Supreme Court.

Considering the nature of the crime and the brutality involved, the judge, while convicting Kamble, had remarked that the accused does not deserve any leniency or a lighter sentence.

The judge also stated that the injuries found on the victim’s body were sufficient to prove the brutality of the act.

Taking into account a previous sexual assault case against Kamble, the court noted that he is aware of the law and showed no remorse for his actions throughout the trial.

The verdict was delivered within two months of the incident, which occurred on May 1.

The police had filed the charge sheet within 15 days of the incident. Charges were framed on May 28, and final arguments concluded on June 21.

In a chilling reminder of the growing insecurity being faced by the most vulnerable members of our society, the Bhor Taluka region of Pune was rocked by a crime of unimaginable cruelty on May 1. The 65-year-old sexually assaulted and brutally murdered a three-year-old girl, reportedly ending her life by crushing her with a stone.

The incident came to light when the girl went missing in the afternoon, and her family started a frantic search. During the search, her mutilated and bloodied body was discovered.

CCTV footage from the area showed Kamble taking the toddler along, which helped police identify and detain him.

Mumbai, June 29: After a three-day manhunt, the Mahim Police have arrested the accused who allegedly launched a life-threatening knife attack on a 35-year-old man, Naveen Prasanna, outside Mumbai Mahim Railway Station following a minor altercation.

The accused, identified as 19-year-old Anas Ansari, was arrested from Mumbai’s Wadala area. Police are still searching for the knife used in the crime, which has not yet been recovered.

A senior police official said that the arrest was made after investigators examined footage from more than 100 CCTV cameras to trace the accused’s movements.

Based on the surveillance footage, the police tracked Ansari to Wadala, where he was apprehended. During the investigation, police learned that the accused had allegedly discarded the knife after the attack. Efforts are underway to recover the weapon, and Ansari is currently being interrogated.

The accused had been absconding since the violent incident, which took place on the night of June 25. According to the police, Ansari is originally from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. A case has been registered against him under Sections 109(1), 352, and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

According to the police, the victim, Naveen Prasanna, is a resident of Qureshi Mahal Compound in Pitambar Lane, Mahim, and works as an office boy at a private company in Lower Parel.

On the night of June 25, at around 10 p.m., Prasanna was returning home after work. He had travelled from Lower Parel to Mahim by a slow local train. While walking through the station premises, he accidentally bumped into another man, causing the mobile phone in the latter’s hand to fall to the ground.

Although Prasanna immediately apologised for the accidental collision, the accused allegedly became enraged, chased him, and attacked him with a knife. Prasanna sustained serious injuries and was rushed to Sion Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment.

The latest incident follows another shocking case reported on June 22, in which 22-year-old Mayank Lohar was allegedly stabbed to death inside a moving Mumbai local train following an argument over whether the coach door should remain open during heavy rainfall.

According to the Government Railway Police (GRP), Lohar and the accused, Roshan Suvarna, had boarded the train at Andheri station. The argument escalated while the train was travelling between Andheri and Borivali stations, after which Suvarna allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Lohar in the abdomen, leaving him critically injured. The 30-year-old accused was later arrested from Kurla following a citywide manhunt involving six Railway Police teams.