Who is Bihar resident Sanjeev Mukhiya, key accused in NEET paper leak?

Mukhiya, 51, has a history of leaking public exam papers and has been involved in as many as five major paper leak cases. He was also involved in the paper leak in the Bihar teachers’ recruitment exam for which his son, Shiv Kumar was arrested earlier this year. The third phase of the exam had to be cancelled due to the paper leak.

An old hand

News reports claimed that Mukhiya is heading a ‘solver gang’ — a shadowy interstate network that allegedly sells solved question papers of competitive examinations to those willing to pay. The gang even offers proxies who can attempt the exam for the candidate.

Mukhiya has been involved in exam frauds for two decades. Earlier, he was linked to a notorious mastermind of pre-online exam paper leaks, Bihar’s Ranjit Don. Don, who was fielded by the Lok Janshakti Party (BJP's ally) in the 2015 biennial legislative council elections, has been accused of leaking question papers for various competitive exams, including CAT, CBSE medical entrance examinations, and PG medical tests.

According to reports, Mukhiya, who worked as a technical assistant at Nalanda College's Noorsarai branch, later established his own criminal network. He now runs a 'solver gang' along with another infamous paper leak specialist Ravi Atri.

Atri was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) from Meerut in April this year for orchestrating the leak of the UP Police Constable Exam paper. This operation involved getting students together at a resort in Manesar to distribute the leaked papers.

Mukhiya and his son were earlier arrested for leaking the NEET question paper in 2017 from Patrakar Nagar in Patna. They were arrested along with Dr Shubham Mandal, who was behind the UP constable exam paper leak. But it is not clear how Mukhiya is not in jail.

Solver Gang network

This network has its fingers in most public exams, be it the constable recruitment exam or the teacher recruitment exams. They also operate across multiple states. Mukhiya also had a hand in the infamous 2016 Bihar Public Service Commission constable recruitment exam leak.

According to a report in the Indian Express, Mukhiya also harboured political ambitions. His wife, Mamta Devi, serves as the 'mukhiya' or chief of Bhuthakhar panchayat, a position she held after getting a ticket from the Lok Janshakti Party.

Mukhiya's involvement in 2024 NEET paper leak

According to authorities, Mukhiya organised the distribution of NEET-UG answer sheets for the 2024 exam. He allegedly received these papers via mobile, however, it is not clear who sent them to him. Efforts are on by investigating agencies to find the source of the leak.

Meanwhile, Bihar Economic Offences Unit's investigations have revealed that it was Mukhiya’s close aide Baldev Kumar, who received a PDF of the solved question paper on his mobile. Earlier, Mukhiya had allegedly accommodated 25 candidates at a boys' hostel, associated with the Learn Play School in Patna on May 4, a day before the NEET exam.

Once Kumar had the solver paper, the candidates were then taken to the school to memorise the answers.

Baldev is one of the five alleged ‘solver gang’ members arrested in the case from Jharkhand’s Deoghar.

NEET-UG 2024, which is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), took place at 4,750 centres. More than 24 lakh candidates had appeared for the exam. The results were declared on June 4.

However, after the results were announced, some students and parents objected when 67 students achieved top perfect scores, 720 out of 720, amid claims of question paper leaks in Bihar.