NEET whistleblower says re-exam will be leak-proof, but students remain sceptical
In less than a week, lakhs of students will be sitting for the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination. It was a whistleblower from Sikar, the coaching hub
In less than a week, lakhs of students will be sitting for the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination. It was a whistleblower from Sikar, the coaching hub for the all-India medical entrance examination, who approached the police and wrote to the Testing Agency (NTA), informing them about the question paper leak in May. Shashikant Suthar, a chemistry teacher at one of the coaching institutes in Sikar, believes that there is a near-zero chance of a paper leak this time. However, students India Today Digital spoke too were cautiously optimistic. Read Full Story Speaking exclusively to India Today Digital, Shashikant Suthar, the whistleblower, said that the examination scheduled for June 21 is likely to be leak-proof because of the extensive measures taken by the Centre and the Ministry of Education. "It's highly unlikely that question papers of this re-examination might get leaked. The measures now taken by the government should have been implemented earlier to avoid the difficulties students are facing," Suthar said. "There has to be even greater scrutiny in the future to ensure that there are no more paper leaks and that students do not suffer," he added. Suthar had gone to a police station in Sikar in the dead of night after the NEET-UG test on May 3, suspecting that the question paper had been leaked. He then wrote to the NTA, which conducts the pan-India exam. Suthar teaches chemistry at Gurukripa Coaching Institute, one of the oldest and biggest in Rajasthan's Sikar. Even though the teacher believes that the government's measures will bring the chances of another question paper leak to near-zero, students in Sikar appearing for the re-test remain sceptical, and say that it will only be known after the re-exam on June 21.
The Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG), conducted on May 3 and attended by over 22 lakh candidates across India, was cancelled on May 12 after authorities followed up on Suthar's allegations and uncovered a multi-state paper leak network that had allegedly circulated leaked questions in the guise of "guess papers" weeks before the examination. According to the CBI investigation, the leak originated from insiders linked to the Testing Agency's (NTA) paper-setting process in Maharashtra, where questions were allegedly accessed during paper preparation and later distributed through coaching networks across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, and several other states via WhatsApp and Telegram. GOVT HAS TAKEN EXCEPTIONAL STEPS TO PREVENT NEET-UG PAPER LEAK The scandal came to light after Shashikanth Suthar identified and exposed substantial overlaps between a circulated PDF and the actual examination paper, prompting complaints to authorities between May 3 and May 7. Several people, including alleged paper-setting experts, coaching operators, and middlemen, have since been arrested as investigators probe the wider conspiracy and money trail. In response to the leak, the government and the NTA introduced unprecedented security measures for the June 21 re-examination. The authorities have also announced that NEET will shift to a computer-based test (CBT) format from 2027 to eliminate vulnerabilities associated with the OMR-based system. For the re-exam, the government announced that question paper setters, moderators, and translators would be placed in complete isolation at undisclosed locations without access to phones, laptops, or the internet. The entire process has been compartmentalised by the authorities so that no individual or agency has access to the full chain from paper creation to distribution. The government has also said that question papers will be transported using Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft and helicopters, with multi-layered security provided by the CRPF, CISF, and state police forces.
The BriefWire