Hate speech case: Chhattisgarh HC grants bail to Kalicharan Maharaj
Bilaspur (PTI): The Chhattisgarh High Court on Friday granted bail to Kalicharan Maharaj, over three months after he was arrested for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Mahatma Gandhi at an event in state capital Raipur.
A bench of Justice Arvind Singh Chandel granted bail to the 44-year-old religious leader, his counsel Kishore Bhaduri said.
As per the HC order, the applicant shall be released on "bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh with two solvent sureties each for a sum of Rs 50,000 to the satisfaction of the concerned trial court for his appearance before the said court as and when directed".
During the bail hearing, Bhaduri submitted in the HC that his client is innocent and he has been falsely implicated in the case due to political rivalry.
The offence under section 124A of the IPC (sedition) is prima facie not made out against the applicant, he added.
Additional Advocate General appearing for the state, Suni Otwani, opposed the bail plea.
Looking at the nature of the offences against the accused, it is prayed that the bail application may be rejected, Otwani told the court, as per the order copy.
The Raipur Police had arrested Kalicharan Maharaj alias Abhijeet Dhananjay Saraag from a rented room near Bageshwar Dham, located about 25 km from Khajuraho town in Madhya Pradesh, on December 30 last year.
On December 26, an FIR was registered against Kalicharan Maharaj with Raipur's Tikrapara police station under sections 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) and 294 (obscene acts) here for allegedly using derogatory words against Mahatma Gandhi during the conclusion of two-day 'dharma sansad' (religious parliament) organised in Raipur on December 26.
The religious leader's comments against the Father of the Nation had drawn nationwide flak.
Later, the police added 124 A (sedition) and four other sections of the IPC in the case.
Earlier, a court in Raipur had denied bail to Kalicharan Maharaj, who hails from Akola district in Maharashtra.
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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.
