Unnao rape victim accident case: CBI drops murder charges against ex-BJP MLA Senger
New Delhi, Oct 11: The CBI on Friday dropped murder charges against former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his associates in its first charge sheet in the Unnao rape victim accident case in which two aunts of the woman were killed, officials said.
In the first charge sheet filed before a special CBI court in Lucknow in the evening, the agency charged Sengar and all other accused named in the FIR under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation.
The FIR filed by the CBI had booked Sengar and nine other associates for alleged criminal conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder and criminal intimidation.
Sengar has been expelled from the BJP.
The woman, allegedly raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor, battled for life after a truck rammed into the car she was travelling in with some family members and her lawyer in Rae Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh on July 28.
Truck driver Ashish Kumar Pal has been charged under IPC sections related to causing death by negligence, causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others and rash driving or riding on a public way, the officials said.
No charges of criminal conspiracy have been slapped against Pal in the CBI charge sheet, they said.
The agency also recommended to the Uttar Pradesh government departmental action against some officers but did not reveal their identity.
On the day of the accident, none of her security personnel of Uttar Pradesh Police were accompanying the woman. They were later suspended.
Two days after the accident, on July 30, the CBI booked Sengar, his brother Manoj Singh Sengar, Arun Singh, son-in-law of a Uttar Pradesh minister along with seven others.
The agency had taken over the FIR registered by Uttar Pradesh Police which was filed on the basis of statement given by the uncle of the woman.
In a critical condition, the victim was airlifted from a hospital in Lucknow and brought to the AIIMS for better care.
The victim, now 19-year old, was allegedly raped by the MLA on June 4, 2017 when she was a minor but her attempts to file a case did not materialise. Her father was arrested on alleged false charges levelled by the family of Sengar.
She had attempted self-immolation in front of Adityanath's residence to get the probe going in her case last year.
Next day, her father was allegedly assaulted inside the prison and he died of the injuries.
The news grabbed headlines following which the Allahabad High Court took suo motu cognisance of the case and handed over the matter to the CBI which has filed charge sheet against Sengar in July last year.
He was arrested on April 13 last year in connection with the rape case.
A four-term MLA, Sengar, who represents Bangarmau in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, is considered an influential Thakur leader in the region.
The case in a special court hardly progressed since there were no judges to hear the matter.
The rape survivor wrote a number of letters to various authorities, including the Chief Justice of India, saying she was threatened for her life by Sengar's kin.
A letter dated July 12, written by the survivor and two of her family members, was also sent to the Allahabad High Court and other authorities of the Uttar Pradesh government.
Taking note of the letter, the Supreme Court on August 1 had directed the CBI to finish the probe within a week. This deadline was repeatedly increased on the request of the agency.
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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.
