After the alleged widespread distribution of a ‘guess paper’ of which 120 questions matched the actual NEET-UG 2026 question paper, Rajasthan’s Special Operations Group (SOG) traced the trail to the origin of the leak. The medical entrance exam conducted on May 3 was canceled on Tuesday.
“After we received a tip-off, our senior officers reached Sikar,” a senior SOG official told HT on Tuesday, as the CBI also began its investigation with the main exam preparation center in Rajasthan being one of the key places under its lens.
“The officers — Additional Director General of Police Vishal Bansal, Inspector General Ajay Pal Lamba and Additional Superintendent of Police Prakash Sharma — reached Sikar while some other teams of 150 policemen also started collecting data on who and how many people accessed the electronic version of the ‘guess sheet’ on WhatsApp,” an officer familiar with the investigation told HT on condition of anonymity.
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“We were at least able to trace the person who received the first handwritten physical copy of the guess sheet. But reaching him in just five days was not an easy task,” the officer said. Police became aware of the “malpractices” on May 7, as did the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The person in question was arrested by the police in Nashik, Maharashtra on Tuesday, May 12.
How was paper circulated?
Shubham Khernar, a final year student of Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS), allegedly obtained a physical copy of 120 questions from the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) as a form of ‘guess paper’ and started distributing its soft copies via WhatsApp, another senior police official said.
He allegedly sent the soft copy to an individual in Gurugram, Haryana, and from there it was sent to several cities in Rajasthan, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar, among others.
A student residing in Churu (Rajasthan) and studying in Kerala also received an electronic copy and gave it to her father who runs a hostel in Churu. He distributed it to students at his hostel and delivered it to a coaching center in Sikar as well, sources said.
Read also | How ‘Guess Paper’ led to cancellation of NEET-UG, India’s largest entrance test
“Only the night before the exam, the paper, so to speak, arrived on almost every student’s WhatsApp, which made it difficult for us to differentiate between who got it and who didn’t,” an investigating officer said.
How did the issue come to light?
Four days after the exam, some students and coaching center staff from Sikar approached the NTA complaining about a possible leak, and the NTA referred the case to the Rajasthan Police.
In its investigation before the CBI took charge, the Special Operations Group of Rajasthan Police traced Khairnar, who was in direct contact with the suspected gang who had leaked the main newspaper; It also tracked the middlemen who bought the paper from each other and distributed it.
‘A new kind of leak’
“This is a completely new way of leaking a paper. Until now, we have seen that the paper leaking mafia takes money from candidates, solves the paper, meets them personally, and makes them save the paper. But this time, the gang leaked the paper, prepared a handwritten ‘guess paper’ of 410 questions, including 120 questions from the actual paper, and sold it to someone who distributed it through social media,” the officer familiar with the details of the investigation said.
“So far, we have found Khairnar who received a handwritten physical copy of the paper. But the matter is under investigation if anyone else receives a similar physical copy of the paper from the gang,” he said.
SOG also investigated training centers in Jaipur, Sikar and Kota.
How was the “private mafia” tracked down?
In the first part of the investigation, after a thorough search in Sikar, the Special Operations Group reached Gurugram, where they traced a person from whom the paper was first distributed to some students in Sikar via WhatsApp.
“The distribution took a large-scale form from Sikar only. There was also a WhatsApp group ‘Private Mafia’ from which it was sold to many. Many students also got it for free from their friends and coaching centres. After tracking down the Gurugram person, we can easily track down Khairnar in Nashik, and inform Maharashtra to start interrogating him. The CBI is now also ready to take its custody,” an officer added.
The SOG has so far questioned more than 20 people.
