Prateek Tanmay
Probing the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, the CBI has uncovered two messaging app trails — a Maharashtra-Rajasthan-Haryana route and a Maharashtra-Rajasthan-Kerala pathway — through which the question papers travelled.
Investigators are calling it a “countrywide conspiracy” involving subject experts, coaching institute operators and intermediaries, The Indian Express has learnt.
In a chargesheet filed Tuesday in a Delhi fast-track court, the CBI has named 13 accused including NTA biology expert Manisha Mandhare, NTA chemistry expert Pralhad Vithalrao Kulkarni, NTA physics expert Manisha Sanjay Havaldar.
The others named are Shivraj Raghunath Motegoankar, owner of Renukai Career Centre Coaching Institute in Latur; Tejas Harshadkumar Shah, COO at APMA Coaching Institute in Pune, and eight alleged intermediaries: Manisha Sanjay Waghmare, Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande, Shubham Madhukar Khairnar, Yash Yadav, Mangilal Biwal, Vikash Biwal, Dinesh Biwal and Dr Manoj Bhagwanrao Shirure. Investigators have focused on Motegoankar whose coaching institute has branches in Pune, Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nanded, Solapur, Kolhapur, Akola and other parts of Maharashtra.
“Investigators have alleged that Motegoankar was an active member of the organised network that procured and circulated NEET (UG) 2026 question papers. He allegedly arranged procurement of chemistry questions by paying Rs 5 lakh, routed through co-accused Dr Manoj Bhagwanrao Shirure, reportedly for the benefit of his son and students enrolled at RCC,” sources said.
A phone found during a search at Motegoankar’s house allegedly led to recovery of leaked questions, and notes of chemistry questions in his handwriting.
“At least 36 images, including five duplicates, containing 132 handwritten chemistry questions were recovered from his mobile phone. The metadata allegedly showed that the images were captured on a Samsung Fold7 on April 23 this year, around 10 days before the examination. Prima facie, investigators found that approximately 111 of these questions matched questions from the NTA master sets for NEET (UG) 2026,” sources said.
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The CBI chargesheet, it is learnt, also details the alleged role of Dr Shirure, a medical practitioner running a private hospital in Latur. Investigators have said Shirure facilitated the procurement and onward dissemination of leaked chemistry questions at the instance of Kulkarni, also an accused.
“Shirure’s hospital premises were allegedly used as the venue where Motegoankar’s son accessed the chemistry question paper in the third week of April, before the NEET examination. Shirure also referred two other doctors whose children procured the question paper from Kulkarni, each allegedly paying Rs 3 lakh,” sources said.
Kulkarni was said to have also disclosed that he first came in contact with co-accused Dhananjay Lokhande in 2021 and conspired with Manisha Waghmare in procuring and circulating the leaked papers.
“The paper reached the beneficiaries through Kulkarni’s network. A payment of Rs 5 lakh made for the leaked paper was traced to Motegoankar’s wife and was allegedly recovered from the residence of a Shirure family member,” sources said.
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The CBI has found that the first formal indication of the alleged NEET paper leak came not from an investigating agency, but from a May 7 email sent by a chemistry teacher, Shashikant Suthar, in Rajasthan’s Sikar, to the NTA, detailing how solved questions were allegedly circulating hours before the examination.
Suthar wrote that on the evening of May 3, shortly after the NEET examination ended at 6 pm, his landlord approached him with two PDF files containing question papers and asked him to compare them with the actual NEET paper.
Suthar found that the questions in the PDFs matched the actual paper. He then got the match independently verified by colleagues before alerting the NTA.
Questioned about the source of the PDFs, the landlord reportedly said they had been sent to him on WhatsApp by his son, a first-year MBBS student studying in Kerala.
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“He (the student) told him that he had received the files on May 2 from a student who shared a room with him. The chain, as described in Suthar’s email, led to a man who had initially demanded Rs 40,000 for the leaked paper but later agreed to Rs 30,000, which was paid through PhonePe,” sources said.
The email alleged that the man who had been paid sent 450 solved questions and answers at 11 pm on May 2, just hours before the NEET examination was scheduled to be held. “The account suggests that the alleged leak had reached students and intermediaries at least a day before the exam,” sources said.
