Delhi High Court dismisses NEET leak accused Lokhande’s petition challenging arrest

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition by Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande, one of the accused in the alleged NEET-UG paper leak, who challenged his arrest and sought immediate release. The bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja also ordered him to pay ₹25,000 to the advocates welfare fund.

“We find the present petition to be an abuse of the process of law. This is absolutely meritless,” the court said in its order. Lokhande, 25, was arrested on May 13 in connection with alleged irregularities in the examination.

The challenge followed a trial court decision on August 22 rejecting his request for a copy of the arrest memo. That court held the memo fell within the category of unrelied documents, which an accused is not entitled to receive. It also said whether Lokhande had been given a copy would be determined during the trial.

In his high court petition, Lokhande argued that his arrest was illegal because no arrest memo had been provided. He said the chargesheet contained only a two-page personal search memo dated May 13. The petition alleged that the record did not state the grounds, reasons, date, time or place of arrest, or document communication with him, relatives or friends. It also alleged that the memo contained an incorrect father’s name and left blank the section identifying who conducted the personal search.

CBI special public prosecutor Premtosh Kumar Mishra told the high court that the grounds of arrest had been communicated after Lokhande’s arrest, including by telephone. The CBI has filed a chargesheet against all 13 people arrested in the case, saying its investigation traced the alleged leak from paper setters to beneficiary candidates and uncovered the alleged conspiracy. The NEET-UG examination held on May 3 was cancelled because of the leak, and a re-examination was ordered for June 21, prompting widespread outrage among students.

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We find the present petition to be an abuse of the process of law. This is absolutely meritless. Accordingly we dismiss the same with a cost of ₹25,000 to be submitted with the advocates welfare fund.