The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the paper leak in the NEET UG exam, on Thursday, filed its first charge sheet in the case, official sources said.

In the chargesheet, the federal probe agency has named 13 people as accused who were involved in the paper leak and other irregularities related to the NEET exam.

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The CBI filed the chargesheet under Sections 120-B, 201, 409, 380, 411, 420 and 109 IPC and substantive offences against the accused, including Nitish Kumar, Amit Anand, Sikander Yadvendu, Ashutosh Kumar-1, Roshan Kumar, Manish Prakash, Ashutosh Kumar-2, Akhilesh Kumar, Avdesh Kumar, Anurag Yadav, Abhishek Kumar, Shivnandan Kumar and Ayush Raj.

The paper leak case was initially registered at Patna’s Shastri Nagar Police Station before being transferred to the federal probe agency on June 23. The CBI’s FIR in the matter is said to be based on a complaint from the Central Education Ministry, asking to comprehensively probe the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG exam, 2024.

According to official sources, the probe agency has made use of advanced forensic techniques, artificial intelligence, CCTV footage, mobile tower location analysis and several other important tools to gather evidence against the accused. Its probe against the accused, and also the suspects in continuing with regard to investigating all other things related to the matter, while several other accused are already in judicial custody.

As and when further probe against these suspects is completed by the agency, supplementary charge sheets will be filed accordingly.

So far, 40 accused have been arrested by the agency in this case including 15, who were arrested by Bihar Police and till date the sleuths of the probe agency have conducted searches across 58 locations, while the investigation is continuing on a day to day basis.