4 MNS workers held for playing 'Hanuman Chalisa' on loudspeaker outside Sena Bhavan in Mumbai
Mumbai(PTI): Mumbai police on Sunday detained four workers of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for playing 'Hanuman Chalisa' on a loudspeaker in front of the Shiv Sena headquarters in Dadar area, an official said.
The police also seized the loudspeaker, a cab on which it was mounted and other items, he said.
On April 2, MNS chief Raj Thackeray had demanded that loudspeakers at mosques be shut down and said if this is not stopped, "there will be speakers outside mosques playing 'Hanuman Chalisa' at higher volume".
He had also criticised NCP chief Sharad Pawar, whose party shares power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in Maharashtra, accusing him of "playing the caste card from time to time and dividing society". He had also taken potshots at Maharashtra Chief Minister and his estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray,
On Sunday morning, after being alerted about MNS members playing the religious hymn on a loudspeaker outside the Sena Bhavan, police reached the spot and detained MNS functionary Yashwant Killedar and three other workers of the outfit, the official from Shivaji Park police station said.
Following their detention, a number of MNS workers gathered in a small temple located near the police station premises and start singing the 'Hanuman Chalisa' and other religious songs.
"We have detained four MNS workers for playing a loudspeaker in front of the Sena Bhavan. We are conducting further investigation into the matter," the police official said.
Last Sunday, some MNS workers had played the 'Hanuman Chalisa' in front the party office in Kalyan town of neighbouring Thane district.
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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.
