The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigating the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, the alleged involvement of a government official associated with the National Testing Agency (NTA). The national-level competitive exam held on May 3 was canceled after allegations of a paper leak surfaced. NTA has finalized the UG medical entrance test date on 21st June.
Who is the alleged king?
Manisha Sanjay Waghmare from Maharashtra’s Pune, who was arrested on May 14, is under the CBI scanner. Manisha Waghmare is alleged to have given probing questions to key accused Dhananjay Lokhande, who is believed to be the mastermind of the vast network who is accused of further spreading the questions.
What we know so far about the CBI investigation
According to the CBI, Manish Waghmare along with chemistry lecturer PV Kulkarni from Latur, who were arrested on May 15, accessed the leaked question and answer papers on April 27 through a “public servant associated with the National Testing Agency (NTA)”.
According to the agency, Manisha Waghmare came in contact with PV Kulkarni through biology lecturer Manish Mandhare, who was arrested by the CBI on Saturday. It is important to note that Manisha Mandhare was part of the NTA committee for creating papers for NEET-UG. She was appointed by NTA as an expert and was a key member of the committee involved in the NEET (UG) examination process. According to officials, Mandhare had full access to Botany and Zoology question papers.
Investigations indicated that Manisha Waghmare allegedly collected questions from PV Kulkarni. On Thursday, the CBI arrested two accused in the case, including Dhananjay Lokhandy from Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar, besides Manish Sanjay Waghmare.
Citing monetary considerations as the purpose of the paper leak, the CBI found that the handwritten chemistry questions shared by Kulkarni had been destroyed. It is alleged that Manisha Waghmare destroyed the seized documents in an illegal manner after the inspection on May 3.
The probe focused on Manisha Mandhare and found that she allegedly mobilized potential candidates for the April 2026 NEET exams through Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted special coaching classes for these students at her headquarters in Pune, PTI quoted a CBI spokesperson as saying. Manisha Mandhare’s modus operandi was similar to that of Kulkarni who collected thousands of rupees as fee for dictating leaked questions and answers to selected students.
PV Kulkarni, who was considered a domain expert in chemistry and had served on panels involved in framing NEET questions for years, was arrested on Friday for abusing his privileged access to confidential material. “During the last week of April 2026, (Kulkarni) mobilized students with the help of another accused, namely Manisha Waghmare, who was arrested on May 14 by the CBI,” PTI quoted a CBI spokesperson as saying. Students were allegedly charged several crores of rupees for a session where questions were dictated that “exactly matched” the actual NEET-UG paper.
How many people have been arrested so far in case of NEET 2026 paper leak?
A total of nine accused from Delhi, Jaipur, Gurugram, Nashik, Pune and Ahilyanagar have been arrested so far.
NEET-UG switch to computer based exams from 2027?
As most of the leaked questions “matched” those that appeared in the May 3 exam, the NEET exam was cancelled. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has announced that NEET-UG will switch from OMR to Computer Based Test (CBT) mode from 2027 onwards. However, the canceled re-examination of NEET-UG 2026 will be conducted in traditional offline mode on 21st June 2026.
