Two dancers express solidarity with Mansiya; to boycott Koodalamanikyam Temple fest
Thrissur, Apr 1: Expressing solidarity with dancer Mansiya V P, who was denied opportunity to perform at Koodalmanikyam temple on religious grounds, at least two dancers on Friday decided not to participate in the dance festival at the ancient Kerala shrine.
Karthik Manikandan, a Bharatanatyam dancer took to Facebook and said he was backing out from his performance scheduled on April 17.
Anju Aravind, a classical dancer and a research scholar, said she has decided to boycott the programme being organised at the temple.
In solidarity with the artistes who were "sidelined" from participating in the Koodalmanikyam dance and music fest, "I'm backing out" from performing on April 17 at the temple, Karthik wrote on his Facebook page.
He pledged his support to Mansiya and all the artistes, who were denied permission to perform in the temple on religious grounds.
Anju, who was scheduled to perform at the festival on April 21, also announced through Facebook her decision to boycott the festival.
She said Mansiya was denied permission on the sole ground that she was a non-Hindu.
"As an artist, I believe that there is no caste or religion for art and I cannot perform on that stage after giving in writing that I am a Hindu. Therefore, I boycott this opportunity," Anju wrote on her Facebook page.
Amid a raging controversy over the denial of permission to non-Hindu artistes to perform in Kerala's famous Koodalmanikyam temple, a Devaswom official had on Wednesday said conciliatory talks are on with all stakeholders including priests to address the issue and expressed hope that a positive outcome will be evolved in the near future.
The temple officials had said that as per the custom and traditions, not only artistes belonging to other religions, even non-Hindu politicians and workers are not allowed to enter in the temple compound.
Mansiya, a Bharatanatyam dancer and a PhD research scholar in classical dance, had on Monday taken to Facebook saying the temple officials denied her permission to perform despite printing her name in the programme notice. She has declared that she does not belong to any religion.
The temple officials had claimed that she was denied permission as the shrine tradition does not allow a non-Hindu to enter the premises.
Mansiya, a Muslim-born woman, was to perform at the 10-day National Festival of Dance and Music organised by the temple to be held from April 15 to 25. Around 800 artistes are expected to perform at the temple during the fest.
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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.
