'Achhe din', Rs 15 lakh in bank accounts all 'April fool' jokes: Sanjay Raut targets Centre
Mumbai (PTI): Hitting out at the Centre over the rising fuel prices and other issues, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said the promises of ''achhe din" (good days) and depositing Rs 15 lakh into the bank accounts of people were nothing but 'April Fools' Day' jokes.
Alleging that the government has fooled the people for the last seven years, he said it should now work for their welfare as it is a "life and death" situation for the common man.
April 1 is celebrated as April Fools' Day, wherein people play practical jokes on each other.
Talking to reporters here, Raut said, "The promises of 'achhe din', depositing Rs 15 lakh into the bank accounts of citizens, integrating Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) into India and providing employment are nothing but April fool jokes."
The government should stop lying and be committed to the welfare of people. It is a matter of life and death for the common man, he said.
Before coming to power in 2014, the BJP had promised to bring back black money and deposit Rs15 lakh into every citizen's bank. The promise of 'achhe din' was a top campaign point of the saffron party at that time.
"Saying that we don't indulge in vendetta politics is also part of the April fool series, which is going on in the country for the last few years," he said targetting the BJP.
After the results of the Assembly elections in five states recently, petrol and diesel prices were raised, Raut said, adding that rulers always make a fool out of the common man.
"People are being fooled for seven years," he said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested Nagpur-based lawyer Satish Uke and his brother Pradeep in connection with a money laundering investigation.
Referring to the action, the Sena MP said the state police can investigate the charges against Uke in case of any wrongdoing.
"It is shocking that CBI and ED are brought into the states not ruled by the BJP. This is not something, where these central agencies can come and raid people to create terror," he said.
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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.
