A Delhi special court on Tuesday granted the request of Dhananjay Lokhande, a key accused in the 2026 NEET‑UG question‑paper leak, to receive religious texts while he remains in Tihar Jail. Represented by counsel Vikram Singh, Lokhande asked that copies of the Hanuman Chalisa, Mangal Stotra and the Marathi biographical novel Shrimaan Yogi on Chhatrapati Shivaji be supplied by his family or lawyer, subject to security clearance. Judge Ajay Gupta ordered the jail authorities to comply in accordance with jail‑manual rules.
Lokhande has been detained since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested him as part of a probe that identified him as a conduit for leaked exam papers from Maharashtra to Haryana and Rajasthan. According to the CBI chargesheet, he coordinated the collection of papers from Pune‑based businesswoman Manisha Waghmare, who obtained them from National Testing Agency experts, and then passed them to associates in Nashik, Gurugram and finally to the Biwal family in Sikar, Rajasthan.
The CBI has so far arrested and charged thirteen individuals, including the three subject‑matter experts P.V. Kulkarni, Manisha Havaldar and Manisha Mandhare. A special court designated for paper‑leak cases is hearing the matter on a daily basis. The court also rejected petitions by Havaldar and Mandhare seeking additional time to review documents that were not relied upon by the prosecution, emphasizing the need for an expedited trial.
Counsel for the accused were reminded that the amended law requires swift, day‑to‑day proceedings, and that any delays must be justified. The court noted that the accused had already been allowed two‑hour inspection periods on specific dates in August, and found no merit in further extensions.
