When a student at Sikar Coaching Center in Rajasthan walked into his teacher’s office with two PDF files on his phone, it initially seemed like just another post-exam rumour. Within hours, the teacher realized he was staring at one of the biggest abuses in India’s medical admissions system.
the The NEET-UG 2026 exam was canceled earlier this month following paper leak and malpractice reports. The exam is scheduled to be repeated on June 21.
Read also – How NEET exam was leaked: ‘2 sets of question papers’, 3 masterminds and a 5-state network
The fateful night
On May 3, after the medical entrance examination was over, Rajat (name changed), one of the senior teachers and operators of the coaching institute, met the students who had returned from their examination centres.
After two hours, a student named Satish (changed) approached Rajat. “Sir, what should I do?” Satish asked. He showed Rajat two PDF files of the “valuation sheet” sent by his landlord. The document appears to be identical 135 questions from the actual exam paper.
Rajat immediately took Satish to his private office. “Most of them were happy that their exam went well while some were also worried about the result. Soon Satish came to me with the PDF files, so I took them to my office separately as I did not want to discuss such a sensitive issue in front of the students,” Rajat told HT.
Questioning the opposing witnesses
Rajat and another teacher analyzed the documents for three hours. By 9 p.m., they found that 45 questions in chemistry and 90 questions in biology were identical to the original exam paper.
The first PDF file contains approximately 60 scanned pages, Handwritten chemistry questions. The second PDF contains 87 pages of written biology questions.
“We were shocked. Satish immediately called the property owner who told him that he had got it from his son around 11 pm on May 2. His son is studying medicine in Kerala. He is studying medicine in Kerala. He is studying medicine in Kerala,” Rajat told HT.
Read also – CBI is questioning parents who bought leaked NEET paper for their children
Police station play
They first tried to convey the matter to journalists, but were told that a police complaint was necessary. So Rajat sent Satish to the local police station.
“There was a sub-inspector. He listened to the matter but asked Satish to come back with a written complaint the next morning and submit it to the station house officer,” Rajat said. This complaint did not reach the next stage.
Rajesh Kumar, head of Udyog Nagar police station, said, “They never returned the next morning even though we were waiting for them. It was a very sensitive report. How could we have filed an FIR without any solid evidence and a detailed written complaint?”
It didn’t end there for Rajat. It has begun looking into previous paper leaks, including NEET-2024 and AIPMT-2015, in an attempt to understand how such violations occurred in the past.
“This conversation helped me realize a few things. I was sure that The paper was not leaked from Sikar. In Sikar, the only possible way for the paper to be leaked was from the centers once the questions reached them on the day of the exam. “It was already leaked and reached Sikar the previous night,” Rajat said.
Accordingly, it was suspected that there was an internal leak at the agency level.
TEmail NTA
On May 7, Rajat and Satish decided to send an email to National Testing Agency. A Rajasthan State Administrative Service (RAS) employee helped them draft the letter.
“I know that many of my fellow teachers, other coaching centers, and even students hate us for filing this complaint. But I believe this is the right thing to do to save the meritorious young students,” Rajat said.
Rajat sent the email from his account using Satish’s name. “I also have: copies/images of the PDF files, screenshots/images showing the time and receipt of the files on the mobile device, and comparison materials showing the similarity between the leaked PDF files and the actual test questions,” an excerpt of the email said.
Arrests in NEET paper leak case
The matter was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. According to investigators, two members The NTA’s paper preparation committee allegedly leaked separate sections of the exam paper ahead of the May 3 exam.
The CBI has arrested Manisha Gurunath Mandhar, a senior botany teacher from Pune, and PV Kulkarni from Latur, both of whom were appointed by NTA as experts for the NEET-UG 2026 paper preparation committee.
Investigators allege that Mandir had access to botany and zoology papers, while Kulkarni had access to the chemistry paper. Another accused, Manisha Waghmar, a Pune-based beauty salon owner, was identified as a key link in the network.
So far, nine people have been arrested in five states. They include Mandhar, Kulkarni, Waghmar, Dhananjay Lokhanda, Shubham Khairnar, Mangilal Piwal alias Mangilal Khatik, Vikas Piwal, Dinesh Piwal, and Yash Yadav.
(With inputs from HT’s SInjoti Sengupta, Abhishek Charan, Neeraj Chauhan and Sanjay Maurya)
