NEET-UG paper leak: What does CBI chargesheet reveal about conspiracy, accused, modus operandi? | Explained
On May 03, over 22 lakh students appeared for the NEET UG 2026 examination, which was conducted across 5,432 centres in 565 cities, in 13
On May 03, over 22 lakh students appeared for the NEET UG 2026 examination, which was conducted across 5,432 centres in 565 cities, in 13 languages. Days after the exam got over, the Testing Agency (NTA), responsible for its conduct, came to know that a PDF containing hundreds of questions had been shared among students prior to the exam, with several of those questions matching the actual paper. Soon after the news spread, hundreds of students took to the streets and questions mounted over the security of the country’s biggest medical entrance examination. This led the Centre to hand over the investigation to the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI). Almost three months after the paper leak, the central agency filed a chargesheet against 13 accused persons on July 28 in the special fast-track court established by the government to handle this case. The chargesheet revealed that the NEET paper was not just leaked but the confidential questions were allegedly passed from insiders to intermediaries, coaching operators and candidate brokers. The stolen material was copied, printed, sold and distributed for monetary gain. Main accused The CBI’s case centres on three main accused individuals identified as NTA subject experts and public servants: Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, P.V. Kulkarni and Manisha Sanjay Havaldar. The central agency alleged that confidential examination material was removed from NTA custody by these accused and subsequently passed into an organised distribution chain. Mandhare was an expert in biology, while Mr. Kulkarni served as an expert in chemistry on the NTA. Havaldar, on the other hand, was a Physics expert on the NTA panel. The CBI alleges that the trio had access to the full questions by being involved in multiple stages of setting up the question paper.
The other accused include Tejas Harshadkumar Shah, COO and Physics faculty member at Dr. Abhang Prabhu Medical Academy in Pune; Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, Managing Partner of Renukai Career Centre (RCC) in Latur; and Dr. Manoj Bhagwanrao Shirure, owner of Siddhivinayak Hospital in Latur. Manisha Sanjay Waghmare, a private individual, acted as the central broker connecting candidates to the NTA experts. Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande served as a middleman based in Pune. Shubham Madhukar Khairnar was a distributor based in Nashik, while Yash Yadav, another distributor, linked the Nashik network to Rajasthan. This also includes the Biwal family from Jaipur: Mangilal Biwal, his brother Dinesh Biwal, and his son Vikas Biwal collectively ran the final leg of distribution to NEET candidates in the Sikar area. How did the alleged leak work? The chargesheet describes multiple interconnected channels rather than a single hand-to-hand leak. For the Biology questions, the CBI alleges that Ms. Mandhare used her access as an NTA expert to disclose questions to selected students through special coaching classes that she runs. The questions she dictated matched those of the actual examination. The chemistry trial involved Mr. Kulkarni and several intermediaries. The chargesheet states that leaked chemistry questions were passed to individuals outside the immediate NTA circle and eventually reached coaching networks and candidates. In one such network, the CBI found the accused in possession of 36 images, including five duplicates, containing 132 handwritten questions. These questions were allegedly written by Mr Shivraj Motegaonkar. The initial comparison found 111 questions that matched the NTA question sets. The Physics trial allegedly involved Mr. Havaldar and Mr. Tejas Shah. The chargesheet states that Shah received handwritten Physics questions, paid Mr. Havaldar ₹25,000, and gave him a box of mangoes.
The BriefWire