The Maharashtra police have arrested the two accused and handed them over to the CBI. Image for illustration only | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two more accused persons in connection with the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case and conducted searches at 14 places to trace the suspects. The agency has not yet ruled out a role for any public official.
The arrested accused have been identified as Ayurvedic practitioner Dhananjay Lokhande of Ahilyanagar and beauty salon owner Manisha Waghmare of Pune, Maharashtra. The state police arrested both the accused and handed them over to the CBI.
The five accused arrested earlier by the agency were produced before a special court in Delhi, which sent them to seven-day CBI custody for questioning. They were identified as Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal from Jaipur, Rajasthan; Yash Yadav from Gurugram, Haryana; and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik in Maharashtra.
While the agency is yet to uncover the entire plot, it is suspected that Mr. Shubham provided the “guessing” paper to Mr. Yash, who supplied it to Mangilal Biwala for his younger son. Mr. Yash reportedly knew Mangilal’s elder son Vikas from a coaching center in Sikar, Rajasthan. Subsequently, the question paper was distributed among others.
The CBI registered the case on Tuesday based on a written complaint by the higher education department of the education ministry. In coordination with police in various states, it is investigating the network behind the paper leak and those involved in the distribution of the “guess” paper, which is said to have closely matched the actual question paper.
Published – 14 May 2026 22:17 IST
