Ghosi bypoll: SP's Shivpal Yadav accuses UP police of threatening voters, demands action
Azamgarh (UP) (PTI): Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav on Monday accused Uttar Pradesh police officials of threatening voters of the Ghosi assembly constituency ahead of the bypoll and demanded action against them.
The national general secretary of the Samajwadi party along with 10 legislators met Inspector General of Police Akhilesh Kumar and demanded action against the officials of the force who were "threatening" voters.
Yadav also alleged that the deployment of 40 ministers for the Ghosi bypoll was also affecting the election. He handed over a memorandum to the IGP seeking his intervention in ensuring free and fair polls.
The bypoll is slated on September 5 and counting of votes will be held on September 8.
The Samajwadi Party leader alleged that Ghosi and Kopaganj's SHO and circle officer are harassing people and threatening voters.
"In hotels from Azamgarh to Mau, ministers are staying and affecting polls. Money is also being distributed. Muslims are being threatened to prevent them from voting," Yadav said and alleged that the BJP was adopting dishonest means to win the bypoll.
On Sunday, the ruling BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party submitted memorandums to the state election commissioner, accusing each other of "trying to influence" the Ghosi Assembly bypoll.
Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak accused the son of the Samajwadi Party candidate for the Ghosi assembly bypoll of threatening a police constable and that his outpost in-charge, a Dalit, would be "beaten up with shoes".
The bypoll in Ghosi was necessitated following the resignation of Samajwadi Party MLA and OBC leader Dara Singh Chauhan, who joined the BJP and is seeking re-election.
The Congress and Left parties have extended their support to Samajwadi Party candidate Sudhakar Singh. The BSP has not fielded any candidate for the bypoll.
Campaigning for the bypoll came to an end on Sunday evening.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
