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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted its final report before the fast-track court dealing with ‘criminal cases arising from paper leaks’. The 20K-page chargesheet listed three National Testing Agency subject experts—PV Kulkarni for chemistry, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar for physics, and Manisha Gurunath Mandhare for botany and zoology—as the primary sources of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test paper leak. The chargesheet said, ‘Investigation has revealed that (these three) experts were provided with plain sheets inside the confidential section for rough work during translation/back translation. Accused Kulkarni—the alleged mastermind of the leak—had used these sheets to note down, on small chits, all 135 questions of chemistry in brief, and the answer options, and had taken them out in a concealed manner.’ On 10 Aug, the court rejected the plea of three accused seeking directions for conducting polygraph, brain-mapping, and lie detector tests on them. The accused have been booked for offences including criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, and destruction of evidence, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 and remanded to judicial custody till 12 Aug. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shared an excerpt of a media statement from Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar’s press conference on 4 Aug on its social media, claiming it proved a Pakistan link to the students' protest in Delhi. Responding on 6 Aug, the Amritsar Police said it would initiate legal proceedings under the Information Technology Act, 2000 against the social media handles of the BJP as they had uploaded ‘trimmed’ videos of the press conference with edited background and extracts to give an impression that the city police chief had suggested protestors at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi had links with members of the Inter-Services Intelligence terror module. The police also issued a clarification saying there was no association between the two. However, on 7 Aug, Bhullar was shifted by the Panjab government. Meanwhile, student protests in Jharkhand escalated with the students marching towards the State Assembly in Ranchi on 10 Aug. The students have been protesting since 25 Jul with the Sikh community in Ranchi providing food aid to them (earlier coverage).
Former Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar | Photo by Hindustan Times
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