Mumbai: The special CBI court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to Rajiv Sinha, who is shown as wanted in the alleged NEET bribe racket, wherein the gang sought nearly Rs 90 lakh per candidate to increase the marks for entry as medical students.
About The Case
Sinha, 36, is currently in Thailand. He approached the special court for anticipatory bail through his wife, Shatabdi Sinha. He has claimed that he deals in overseas admission as well as admissions from the management quota of educational institutes, and therefore has to deal with the students. He has claimed that he was in Thailand on vacation at the time of the alleged incidents. The plea was opposed by the CBI.
Seeking Sinha’s custodial interrogation, the agency said he was the ultimate beneficiary of the funds collected from the parents. The CBI had claimed that Sinha was part of a meeting he arranged in a Noida hotel. The agency claimed that another accused, Salim Patel, had sent a list of 15 candidates through WhatsApp to Sinha. It is further alleged that Sinha personally received Rs 4 lakh from hawala traders and directed the co-accused to deliver the money received from the candidates.
The defence, however, claimed that Sinha had nothing to do with the students, and a list of 15 candidates was sent to him through the management quota. The court noted that “there is material to show that even admit cards of some candidates and three OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets were sent”.
“If at all these 15 candidates had nothing to do with the enhancement of NEET marks, the first question that arises is, why three OMR sheets were sent to the applicant,” the court said. Refusing to grant anticipatory bail, the special court said, “A huge amount is involved. There is a prima facie case of involvement of the applicant. Only by way of custodial interrogation will he reveal (spill) the beans.”
