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Journalism of Courage
When investigators of Bihar’s Economic Offences Unit handed over the alleged NEET-UG paper leak probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), there was one person whom they conclusively named: Sanjeev Kumar ‘Mukhiya’, who investigators believe was the linchpin of the entire operation.
Head of what is now being called the ‘Solver Gang’ — an interstate network who allegedly sold solved question papers of competitive examinations to those willing to pay — Mukhiya, 51, is believed to have been involved in as many as five major paper leak cases, including the Bihar teachers’ recruitment exam for which his son, Dr Shiv alias Bitu, was arrested earlier this year.
A resident of Nalanda, Mukhiya is currently absconding, although he has filed an anticipatory bail plea in a local court.
The case is yet to be heard.
Mukhiya, called thus because his wife was the former village head of Nalanda’s Bhutahakhar panchayat between 2016 and 2021, has allegedly been involved in paper leak rackets for over two decades — first as an aide to Ranjeet Don, a man believed to have been involved in several exam rackets in the 90s and early 2000s, and eventually on his own.
According to police sources, Mukhiya has been a technical assistant at Udyan Vidyalaya in Nalanda’s Noorsarai for over 10 years, and has been named in at least four paper leak rackets both inside and outside Bihar.
He was also arrested twice — once for a block-level examination in Bihar a decade ago and for the second time in 2016 for a suspected paper leak in Uttarakhand’s constable recruitment exam.
Significantly, Mukhiya’s son Shiv, a doctor, was arrested in this year for alleged irregularities in Bihar’s Teacher Recruitment Exam-III. Although Mukhiya was also accused of being involved in the case, he wasn’t arrested.
According to investigators, it was Mukhiya’s close aide Baldev Kumar who received a PDF of the solved question paper on the morning of May 5 — the day of the exam. It was this solved answer key that candidates were allegedly made to memorise.
Baldev is one of the five alleged ‘solver gang’ members arrested in the case from Jharkhand’s Deoghar.
Political links
Despite the cases against him, Mukhiya also harboured political ambitions, if not for himself then by proxy.
Just before the 2020 Assembly polls, Mukhiya’s wife Mamata Devi, until then a member of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), left the party and unsuccessfully contested the election from Nalanda’s Harnaut as a candidate of the Lok Janshakti Party, losing to JD(U)’s Hari Narayan Singh.
On Monday, the Opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) released photos of Mamata Devi leaders of the JD (U) and other parties of the National Democratic Alliance. However, neither the JD(U) nor Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has commented on this.
On his part, a JD(U) leader admitted on the condition of anonymity that the link was “embarrassing”. However, this leader also added that “there are many political constraints in politics and public life”.
An LJP (R) leader too echoed the statement.
However, RJD national spokesperson Manoj K. Jha appears unrelenting, arguing that the party released the photos “to bring to light intensity of the matter”. “The scam that looks to involve so many states and the scam that raises questions on NTA needs to be thoroughly investigated,” he told The Indian Express.
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