New Delhi: Days after the youth movement centering on the NEET-UG paper leaks generated Delhi’s largest protest in recent years and forced Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as education minister, the CBI on Tuesday (July 28) filed a chargesheet against 13 accused in connection with the exam’s May 2026 leak.In a statement on Tuesday night the CBI said it has charged the 13 accused persons with criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, destruction of evidence in addition to sections of the 2024 Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act as well as the Prevention of Corruption Act.“CBI is committed to ensuring those responsible for such offences face the full legal consequences for their actions,” said the agency, which has cited 360 witnesses, 422 documents and 43 material objects against the accused, all of whom are lodged in judicial custody.Among the 13 accused are three subject matter experts of the National Testing Agency, “several middlemen” who allegedly leaked questions and two individuals associated with coaching centres who are accused of receiving the leaked question papers, the CBI said on Tuesday.“Digital forensic analysis reports, handwriting expert opinions and academic experts’ opinions regarding leaked questions have been obtained,” it added, alleging that these have confirmed the role of the accused in the leak. “Further investigation and forensic analysis is continuing in the case,” it said.The CBI’s chargesheet, reportedly filed before the Rouse Avenue courts, comes just over a week after the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest against the NEET-UG leaks of 2024 and May this year morphed into a nationwide movement that culminated in the July 20 march to parliament, in which tens of thousands participated and to which the Delhi police responded with brutal force.That weeks-long movement had demanded Pradhan’s resignation, with the minister giving in this past Saturday. He has been replaced by Pralhad Joshi, his colleague in the BJP and the Lok Sabha.It also prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who never explicitly addressed the protests – to announce the formation of a fast-track court to prosecute those alleged of involvement in the leak. The court held its maiden sitting on Monday, but its hearing of the bail pleas of two accused was postponed to August 3 after the CBI’s lawyer did not turn up before the bench until 10:45 am.After it came to light that the NEET-UG exam administered on May 3 this year was leaked, the authorities retroactively cancelled it and reconducted the test for almost 20 lakh students on June 21.The CBI is also involved in investigating the 2024 leak. Last week it announced that it did not come across any evidence of the involvement of Sanjeev Mukhiya, one of the accused, in the theft of the question paper and had not chargesheeted him. Mukhiya had been described in the press as an alleged ‘mastermind’ in the case.With inputs from Arvind Gunasekar.