After books, NEET UG leak accused now seeks interim bail for retest

10-yr-old girl raped, 4-yr-old sister sexually abused; 61-yr-old held

2 min readPuneUpdated: Jul 29, 2026 12:29 AM IST

"After the case was registered, the probe was handed over to an officer of Assistant Commissioner of Police rank. The accused was arrested and produced before a court on Tuesday. He has been remanded to police custody for seven days." said a senior officer from Pimpri Chinchwad police. Pimpri Chinchwad police arrested a 61-year-old man on charges of raping a 10-year-old girl and sexually abusing her four-year-old sister. Police have arrested the accused, a construction worker. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered at a police station under the Pimpri Chinchwad police jurisdiction in Pune on Monday based on a complaint filed by the mother of the two girls. Police arrested the accused, a resident of the same locality as that of the girls’ family. He was produced before a court on Tuesday and has been remanded to police custody of seven days.According to the complaint, the accused allegedly raped the 10-year-old on at least two separate occasions between May and July. He also sexually abused the four-year-old sister. According to the complaint, the accused forcefully took the girls to his own house and sexually assaulted them. After the incident came to light, the victims’ family approached police and an FIR was registered against the accused. Police booked him under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections pertaining to rape of woman incapable of giving consent, repeated rape of a woman, rape of a woman under 12 years of age, assault to outrage modesty and assault to disrobe a woman along with the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Police booked the accused under provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as the victims’ family is from a Scheduled Caste community. “After the case was registered, the probe was handed over to an officer of Assistant Commissioner of Police rank. The accused was arrested and produced before a court on Tuesday. He has been remanded to police custody for seven days.” said a senior officer from Pimpri Chinchwad police.

10-yr-old girl raped, 4-yr-old sister sexually abused; 61-yr-old held

2 min readPuneUpdated: Jul 29, 2026 12:29 AM IST

Exclusive: MP college, bank officials ‘colluded to pocket govt scholarships for MBA students who never applied’

A probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation has uncovered an alleged scholarship fraud in Bhopal in which government funds meant for MBA students were allegedly diverted through bank accounts opened without the students’ knowledge.The agency has registered a case against the then senior manager of UCO Bank’s Habibganj branch and five persons associated with the Academy of Management College, Bhopal, after a preliminary enquiry found that nearly Rs 99.48 lakh in government scholarships was siphoned between January 2020 and October 2021. The Academy of Management is a private, self-financed business school in Bhopal’s Awadhpuri area, established in 2009. It is approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and affiliated with Barkatullah University. It is run by the Lala Ram Rakha Mal Trust and offers a two-year MBA programme.The case came to light following a complaint filed by Lokesh Kumar, Deputy General Manager and Zonal Head of UCO Bank, Bhopal, alleging irregularities in the opening and operation of 118 bank accounts at the Habibganj branch. Acting on the complaint, the CBI initiated a preliminary enquiry, which, according to the FIR, revealed that the accounts had allegedly been opened in the names of MBA students without their knowledge or consent. Government scholarship amounts were then credited into these accounts and withdrawn before the beneficiaries could access them. “During the period from 01.01.2020 to 31.10.2021, 118 fraudulent bank accounts were opened in Habibganj Branch of UCO Bank in the name of various persons, and scholarship worth Rs 99.48 lacs were credited into these accounts granted by the government, which was misappropriated by unknown persons,” the CBI FIR read.

Investigators allege that the fraud relied on control over the accounts from the time they were opened. According to the FIR, the college officials allegedly arranged for the accounts to be opened, linked their own or their associates’ mobile numbers to the accounts, collected the respective ATM cards, and used them to withdraw the scholarship money. The CBI has named six people as accused in the case, including Prema Verma, the then Senior Manager of UCO Bank’s Habibganj branch. The others are Vinay Malhotra, director of the Academy of Management College, Bhopal; professor Aditya Malhotra; assistant professors Manoj Jain and Vinesh Meshram; and Ram Singh Verma, who was employed by the college at the time. The FIR also names “unknown others”. When contacted, Malhotra, who was also the chairperson of the college’s Internal Complaints Committee, said, “The bank officials were involved in this, and my name came up now in the CBI investigation.” The other accused are yet to respond to the allegations.Story continues below this ad When reached for a comment, a college representative said this is a matter between bank representatives in which the college administration has been roped in. There are no irregularities in the scholarship scheme, and the college administration is cooperating with the authorities, they said. The modus operandi According to the FIR, account-opening forms were allegedly prepared with forged signatures and false personal details, and mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) verification was bypassed. Documents submitted to support the applications – including bona fide certificates purportedly issued by the college – were later found to be fabricated during scrutiny. The CBI alleged that instead of being handed over to the students, debit cards for the accounts were allegedly issued and delivered to a single individual, Ram Singh, without any written authorisation from the account holders. By linking their own mobile numbers to the accounts, the accused allegedly received one-time passwords (OTPs), enabling them to withdraw scholarship funds almost immediately after they were credited. The CBI has also accused Verma, the then Senior Manager of UCO Bank’s Habibganj branch, of facilitating the operation des

Rs 6,000-crore betting app case: Accused traced to Oman, ED seeks extradition

3 min readRaipurJul 9, 2026 05:55 PM IST

Saurabh Chandrakar, the alleged kingpin in the Mahadev app gambling case. (File photo)After he was recently traced to Oman, authorities in India are seeking to extradite Saurabh Chandrakar, accused in the Rs 6,000-crore Mahadev Online Book betting app case. In March this year, ED attached assets worth Rs 1,700 crore in connection with the case against him. The assets included luxury villas and high-end apartments in some of Dubai’s most premium locations, including in the Burj Khalifa.In 2023, his lavish Rs 200-crore wedding in Dubai, for which his family members arrived in private jets and the guest list included Bollywood celebrities, had made news in India. Since 2023, the Indian authorities have been trying to nab him. Recently, the ED learnt that he was in Oman and the agency is now trying to extradite him. ED counsel Saurabh Kumar Pandey told The Indian Express, “Last month a warrant of arrest and externment papers for Chandrakar were issued by a special court in Raipur. We have sent the papers to the Consulate General of India to get him extradited from Oman.” Apart from Chandrakar, other major names associated with the case who are based abroad are Vikas Chapria, Ravi Shankar Dibrewal, Amit Agrawal and Ravi Uppal. “We are trying to get Chandrakar, Uppal and Chapria declared as fugitive economic offenders under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. The application is pending consideration in the Raipur special court,” said Pandey. Juice centre to betting app Originally a clothes salesman from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, Chandrakar had also run a juice centre and had teamed up with another key accused in the case, Ravi Uppal, to create the betting platform in 2018, according to officials.Story continues below this ad Apart from an Indian passport, Chandrakar also holds a passport of the Republic of Vanuatu, a country in the South Pacific Ocean, officials said. Sources said Ravi Uppal is believed to be either in Dubai or Vanuatu. So far, 13 accused have been arrested in the case by the ED. Police sources said the Mahadev Betting App racket is still operational but under different names. The total value of properties attached, seized or frozen in the case stands at around Rs 4,336 crore. The Raipur Zonal Office of the ED issued a Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) on March 24 this year and attached 20 immovable properties, including 18 in Dubai and two in New Delhi. Immovable assets, worth nearly Rs 1,700 crore, were seized as part of the ED probe into the Mahadev Online Book betting case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).Story continues below this ad The agency alleged that the properties belong to Chandrakar and are held in the names of entities controlled by him and his associates. The agency alleged that the assets were acquired from proceeds of crime generated through illegal online betting operations linked to the Mahadev platform and other similar applications.

Jayprakash S Naidu is a Principal Correspondent for The Indian Express, currently serving as the state correspondent for Chhattisgarh. With an extensive career in frontline journalism, he reports on the political, security, and humanitarian landscape of Central India.

Expertise and Experience

Specialized Conflict Reporting: Jayprakash is a leading voice on the Maoist/Naxalite conflict in the Bastar region. His reporting provides a critical, ground-level view of:

Internal Security: Tracking high-stakes encounters, surrender programs for senior Maoist leaders, and the establishment of security camps in formerly inaccessible "heartland" villages.

Tribal Rights & Displacement: Investigative reporting on the identity and land struggles of thousands of displaced tribals fleeing conflict zones for neighboring states.

Governance & Bureaucratic Analysis: He consistently monitors the evolution of Chhattisgarh as it marks 25 years of statehood, covering:

Electoral Politics: Analyzing the shift in p

School library books ‘glorifying’ separatists: J-K minister vows strict action, police search publisher

2 min readJammuJul 5, 2026 09:28 PM IST

The order also blacklisted the authors and their publishing houses from publishing any other material in the Union Territory. (Image generated using AI)After the Jammu and Kashmir government withdrew two books from its school libraries on the grounds that they contained “highly inappropriate content” on separatism, the counter-intelligence wing of the J&K Police conducted searches at the Jammu premises of the publisher of one of the books after an FIR was registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Meanwhile, J&K Education Minister Sakina Itoo on Sunday described the matter as “unfortunate” and a “deliberate conspiracy”, saying that strict action would be taken against those found involved in the supply of such books to schools. She said “suspension orders have been issued and an enquiry ordered” into the matter.On Saturday, eight officials from the school department were suspended, and one contractual employee was terminated from service after the row broke out. The withdrawn books, ‘Personalities and Legends of J&K’ by Hilal Ahmed and Santosh Meena, and ‘Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir’ by Dr Sushant Giri, were published by Oberoi Book Service, Jammu, and Anurag Prakashan, Delhi, and supplied to school libraries as part of Samagra Shiksha for higher secondary classes. According to an order by Ram Niwas Sharma, Commissioner/Secretary, School Education Department, the books contained references with the “potential to create law-and-order issues”, and their selection reflected “serious negligence, dereliction of duty and lack of due diligence”. The order also blacklisted the authors and their publishing houses from publishing any other material in the Union Territory. The Leader of the Opposition in the J&K Assembly, Sunil Sharma of the BJP, sought a high-level investigation into the matter and described the circulation of controversial books as infusing “academic subversion” and to “initiate academic jihad”. The ruling National Conference’s provincial president, Rattan Lal Gupta, said that it was a deliberate attempt by vested interests to damage the image of an elected government.

Hooch tragedy: CID probes role of 20 more suspects with links in racket

3 min readPuneUpdated: Jun 10, 2026 09:54 AM IST

Probe revealed that prime accused Vhankade allegedly procured the poisonous methanol through an online business-to-business platform after claiming to the supplier that it was required for manufacturing perfumes. (Source: Express Photo)The Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the hooch tragedy in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad in which 20 people were killed, said on Tuesday that it was probing the roles of 20 more suspects in the forward and back linkages of the racket in addition to the 11 who have been arrested till now. The consumption of suspected methanol-laced illicit liquor has claimed 20 lives so far — 16 in the Phugewadi-Dapodi belt of Pimpri Chinchwad and four in Pune’s Hadapsar area. Separate cases have been registered at Dapodi and Hadapsar police stations under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Maharashtra Prohibition Act against those allegedly involved in the illicit liquor network.The investigation cases have since been handed over to the Maharashtra CID. The key suspects arrested till now include main accused Yogesh Ramchandra Vhankade alias Sikandar Rathod and Radheshyam Prajapati, who produced the illicit. Probe revealed that accused Vhankhade bought bootleg liquor from Prajapati in Uruli Kanchan, and after mixing methanol further supplied it to different parts of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad. Based on the chain of evidence in the case, two accused Arun Jagdamb Choubey (59) and Abhishek Arun Choubey (34) who sold methanol to Vhankade have also been arrested. “We have arrested 11 accused till now and they are in police custody till June 10. We are probing at least 20 more suspects in the forward and backward linkages of the racket. For the arrest and probe of these 20 suspects, five teams have been formed. The cell phones which have been seized from the accused have been sent for forensic analysis and also for creating clone copies for the probe.” Earlier, the Pune Rural police suspended four constables who were allegedly in contact with Radheshyam Prajapati, a key accused who is allegedly to be the main supplier of the illicit liquor. Prior to that as many as nine police personnel from Pune city and Pimpri Chinchwad police, along with 13 state excise department officials in Pune, were suspended from active duty pending inquiry, for allegedly failing in their duties to control the illicit liquor trade. Suspension of four staffers from the Pune Rural police took the number of suspended government personnel to 26. Probe has also revealed that prime accused Vhankade allegedly procured the poisonous methanol through an online business-to-business platform after claiming to the supplier that it was required for manufacturing perfumes. Investigators said the supplier, too, allegedly sold the chemical without insisting on the requisite documentation, GST number or carrying out adequate verification. CID has said that Vhankade used a fake Aadhar identity to procure methanol.

After books, NEET UG leak accused now seeks interim bail for retest

2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jun 9, 2026 02:56 PM IST

Yash Yadav, an accused in the NEET UG paper leak case. (Source: File)After he sought permission to get books in judicial custody so he could study for the NEET retest scheduled on June 21, Yash Yadav, an accused in the NEET UG paper leak case, has now moved a Delhi court seeking interim bail to appear for the exam. The court had earlier granted him permission to get books in judicial custody.Yash, from Gurgaon, is a 20-year-old student at Uttarakhand Ayurveda University and a NEET aspirant who appeared in the now-cancelled May 3 exam. Seeking 15-day interim bail, he cited the retest as well as his sister’s wedding. The court of Special Judge Ajay Gupta has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a reply in the matter. The matter will now be heard on June 12. According to the CBI, which is investigating the case, Yash allegedly received PDF files of leaked question papers through Telegram and sold them for Rs 10 lakh. The agency claimed he was instrumental in distributing the “leaked” paper. The CBI said a “guess paper” of 150 pages with 410 questions was circulated to some aspirants. Of those 410 questions, about 120 questions appeared in the chemistry paper of the exam. The “guess paper” was with students weeks before the examination, the agency has claimed. Till date, the agency has made 13 arrests in the case including various teachers and students from Delhi, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Nashik, Pune, Latur and Ahilyanagar.Story continues below this ad The CBI has claimed that National Testing Agency (NTA) sources were behind the leak. P V Kulkarni, a retired chemistry teacher who was “associated with NTA” was earlier arrested by the agency from Pune. The NTA is the government agency under the Union Ministry of Education that administers the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate medical colleges across the country every year. The exam consists of a consolidated question paper in four sections: physics, chemistry, botany, and zoology. More than 22.7 lakh aspirants appeared for this year’s exam on May 3. The NTA announced the leak and cancelled the exam on May 12.

Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.

Professional Background

Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.

Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.

Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.

Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.

Recent notable articles

In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.

A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
Investigation on the 700 De

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10-yr-old girl raped, 4-yr-old sister sexually abused; 61-yr-old held

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Exclusive: MP college, bank officials ‘colluded to pocket govt scholarships for MBA students who never applied’

Rs 6,000-crore betting app case: Accused traced to Oman, ED seeks extradition

School library books ‘glorifying’ separatists: J-K minister vows strict action, police search publisher

Hooch tragedy: CID probes role of 20 more suspects with links in racket