MP: Curfew in Khargone city after stone pelting at Ram Navami procession triggers arson
Khargon(PTI): Curfew was clamped in the entire Khargone city of Madhya Pradesh after stones hurled at a Ram Navami procession here triggered arson and torching of some vehicles and houses, a senior official said on Monday.
The incident took place on Sunday when devotees were celebrating Ram Navami.
Police had to fire tear gas shells to control the situation.
Following the incident, curfew was clamped in the entire Khargone city on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, Khargone Collector Anugrah P said.
Citizens have been asked to step out of home only for medical emergency, she said, adding that the situation is under control.
The collector also said that strict action will be taken against those sharing objectionable messages and videos of the Khargone incident on social media.
The district administration in a tweet said that for any urgent work, except medical emergency, one can seek permission from the SDM office, tehsil office and Kotwali police station.
Earlier, on Sunday, the authorities had clamped curfew in three areas here and imposed Section 144 of the CrPC (banning assembly of four or more people) in the entire city following the violence.
Khargone Superintendent of Police Siddharth Choudhary and two other police personnel were injured in the stone-pelting along with some people, an official earlier said.
Meanwhile, state Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel, who is also in-charge of Khargone district, in a tweet said he has directed the officials to take strict action against rioters.
Divisional Commissioner Pawan Sharma and DIG, Nimar Range, Tilak Singh also reached Khargone to take stock of the situation.
When the Ram Navami procession started from the Talab Chowk area near the district headquarters, stones were pelted at the gathering, prompting the police to fire tear gas shells to control the situation, Khargone Additional Collector Sumer Singh Mujalde had said.
The procession was supposed to take a round of Khargone city, but it was abandoned midway after the violence, he added.
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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.
