NEET paper leaked from ‘NTA source’, CBI informs Delhi court
The accused, arrested in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana, have been brought to Delhi on transit remand.
Students protest against the NEET(UG) paper leak, in New Delhi. (Express photo by Shreya Singhai) The NEET paper leak originated from someone linked to the organisation that conducts the examination, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told a Delhi court.
Shubham Khairnar, the first person to be arrested for the leak, obtained the paper from a person in Pune who “had obtained the same from an NTA source”, Public Prosecutor Neetu Singh, representing CBI, told the court on Friday.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Education, conducts the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) for admission to undergraduate medical programs.
Khairnar was arrested in Nashik on May 12, the same day that the leak of the May 3 paper was revealed. CBI subsequently arrested six other people for the leak.
Five arrested individuals were remanded in CBI custody on Wednesday. Two others, Manisha Waghmare and Dhananjay Lokhande, were detained by Maharashtra Police the same day and handed to CBI.
“…Accused Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande who is known to Shubham [Khairnar] collected NEET examination, 2026 material from co-accused Manisha Waghmare who is resident of Pune. …Lokhande, after receiving the…paper, further transmitted to accused…Khairnar,” the CBI submitted before Special Judge Ajay Gupta on Friday.
Lokhande was produced before the court on Friday, and remanded in six days’ CBI custody.
Waghmare is yet to be produced before the court. Where she got the paper is still under investigation, the CBI told the court.
Counsel for CBI submitted that the arrest of the accused persons was required to prevent the commission of similar offences involving leakage of question papers, to apprehend other co-accused persons, to identify the officials of NTA involved in the leakage of the paper and to unearth the larger conspiracy.
While the CBI has recovered chats between Shubham Khairnar and Yash Yadav, who was arrested from Gurgaon, from Khairnar’s phone, and has seized the phones of other accused persons, the alleged role of NTA officials is yet to be examined. This will be done in the coming days after the seven accused are questioned in the agency’s custody.
Besides Khairnar, Lokhande, Yadav, and Waghmare, the other three individuals named in the case are Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal, and Dinesh Biwal, all from Jaipur.
According to the CBI’s submissions to the court, Khairnar allegedly “facilitated accused Yash Yadav (Gurgaon) for distribution of leaked NEET (UG) 2026 question paper and accordingly on 29.04.2026, accused Yash Yadav got the PDF files of the NEET question papers through Telegram”. The agency has recovered the PDF files containing papers of Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
As per the CBI, a “guess paper” of 150 pages with 410 questions was circulated. Of those 410 questions, about 120 appeared in the chemistry paper of the exam. This paper was allegedly with students weeks before the examination on May 3, the agency said.
As per the CBI, public servants, candidates, institutes, middlemen, and other unknown persons were involved in the “larger conspiracy” behind the leak. More than 22.7 lakh aspirants appeared for the paper. The NTA has now announced a re-test on June 21.
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