Bengaluru: College student dies by suicide; three classmates booked for abetment
Bengaluru (PTI): A 22-year-old college student allegedly died by suicide, following which a case has been registered against three of his classmates on charges of abetment, police said on Wednesday.
The deceased, Arun C from Hassan, was found hanging from an iron rod with a saree at his home on July 11. He had returned home for the vacation after completing his eighth-semester exams, police said.
Arun was an architecture student at a private college in the city.
At the time of the incident, his parents—daily-wage labourers—were away at work. Police recovered a death note in which Arun did not hold anyone responsible for taking the extreme step.
The note did not mention the names of any classmates. Initially, a case of "unnatural death" was registered.
However, the case took a turn after Arun's parents approached the Madanayakanahalli police station with a complaint, accusing three of his classmates of "harassing" their son on a college WhatsApp group. They alleged this "harassment" led to his death.
In the FIR, the parents claimed Arun had been subjected to "mental harassment and humiliation" by the three classmates for over a year.
They allegedly sent "derogatory messages" about him in the class WhatsApp group, a fact later confirmed to the parents by two of Arun’s friends.
The complaint also mentioned that Arun had recorded a video expressing his distress and shared it in the class WhatsApp group shortly before his death—a detail the parents discovered only after his demise.
"Based on the complaint, we have registered an FIR against the three students under Sections 108 (abetment of suicide) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The matter is under investigation, and further legal action will follow based on the findings," a senior police officer said.
As part of the probe, the police will soon issue notices to Arun’s roommates, friends, classmates, and college authorities to ascertain the circumstances leading to his death.
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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.
