India’s largest undergraduate medical entrance exam – NEET UG 2026 – is at the heart of controversy over alleged irregularities, less than two years after the NEET UG 2024 scandal sparked nationwide protests, Supreme Court hearings and a CBI investigation.
With just over 1,000 MBBS seats available against over 22 lakh applicants, a difference of a few marks determines whether a student secures a seat in a government college, pays a crore in a private college, or doesn’t get a seat at all.
Here’s everything you need to know.
What is NEET UG?
National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET UG, is the only portal for admission into MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BHMS, BUMS and other undergraduate medical programs across India. Every student who wants to study medicine in India – whether at AIIMS, a government medical college or a private institution – must pass this exam.
This year, 22.79 lakh students appeared for it. The exam was held on May 3, 2026, from 2 to 5 pm, with pen and paper, across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad, covering more than 5,400 centres.
What is “leakage”?
Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) has begun investigating reports that a handwritten document, described as a ‘guess paper’, containing exam questions had been circulated among students ahead of the exam.
The SOG confirmed that it is examining a document containing about 410 questions. SOG Additional Director General Vishal Bansal said that more than 100 questions from the biology and chemistry sections combined showed “striking similarities” to the actual exam paper, with nearly 120 alleged matches across the two subjects.
Separately, sources linked to the investigation told media that similarities could account for nearly 600 of the total 720 markers.
Bansal said the document was circulated among students “as early as 15 days to a month” before the exam. A report by news agency PTI quoting police sources said that the distribution could have started 42 hours before the exam via WhatsApp.
How the “guess paper” spread on WhatsApp
The investigation so far says the “speculative” document originated from an MBBS student from Churu (Rajasthan) currently enrolled in a Kerala medical college, who is said to have sent it to a colleague in Sikar – a major training center in Rajasthan – on May 1.
From there, the owner of the paid guest accommodation reportedly distributed it to students at the facility, and it then spread through training networks and messaging apps.
The recovered chat logs were reportedly marked “Forwarded multiple times.”
The material was reportedly sold for up to $5 lakh two days before the exam, with the price falling to approx $Sources in the investigation team told news agencies that 30,000 were on the eve of the test.
As of May 11, thirteen suspects have been arrested from Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Sikar and Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan.
Is this an official leak? What NTA, police say
Neither SOG nor NTA used the phrase “paper leak” in any official statement.
Bansal described the material as a “guess sheet” or test series, and said the investigation was focused on determining whether any “fraud or criminal activity” had occurred.
The NTA referred only to “alleged malpractice activity” and “alleged irregularities.” The word “leak” appears in political statements and public discourse, but has not been used by investigative or investigative authorities.
The NTA issued a statement saying that the test was conducted under full security protocol. Question papers were transported in GPS tracking vehicles with unique watermark identifiers, examination halls were monitored through AI-assisted CCTV surveillance, biometric verification of every candidate was carried out, and 5G signal jammers were deployed at all centres, she said.
The NTA said it received inputs on the alleged “misconduct” on May 7 – four days after the test, and escalated the matter to central agencies on May 8 for independent verification.
It said it “will not prejudge the investigation, nor describe its possible outcomes,” and stressed that it provides examination data and technical assistance to investigative agencies.
What did the opposition leader say?
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, posted on
He claimed that in 10 years there were 89 paper leaks and 48 re-tests in various competitive exams and said, “No one poses a greater threat to the dreams of India’s youth than the (Narendra) Modi government.”
His figure of “89 paper leaks in 10 years” refers to leaks across multiple competitive exams in India, not NEET alone.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge separately said that at least four NEET papers were hacked – in 2026, 2024, 2021 and 2016. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra questioned the use of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act – passed in 2024 – if the irregularities continued.
Echo 2024
In 2024, Bihar paper leak has been confirmed in NEET UG. The CBI arrested several individuals and it was proven that the papers were sold for them $30-50 lakh per candidate.
An unprecedented 67 students achieved a perfect score of 720/720. The Supreme Court canceled the grace marks given to 1,563 students. The NTA initially denied wrongdoing. Its president was eventually replaced and a review committee was formed.
This year’s NTA chief, Abhishek Singh, was appointed after the 2024 controversy, and announced a “zero fault, zero tolerance” approach, to oversee security measures rolled out in 2026.
What comes next?
The answer key to the paper has been released and the objection appeal window is expected to open soon. Re-examination remains a possibility depending on the extent of what the investigation confirms.
