New Delhi: Noting down questions and answer options in chits or memorising and writing them down after returning from work, marking relevant paragraphs in NCERT books—this was the broader modus operandi of the three subject experts who allegedly leaked the question paper for this year’s NEET-UG exam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found.
In its 94-page chargesheet, a copy of which ThePrint has seen, the central agency has also documented the shortcomings of the National Testing Agency (NTA)—the higher education body that conducts the medical entrance exam—that subject experts P. V. Kulkarni, Manisha Mandhare and Manisha Havaldar allegedly exploited.
ThePrint had earlier reported that Kulkarni was a subject expert in chemistry, while Mandhare and Havaldar were experts in botany and physics, respectively. They are among the 13 accused arrested and charged by the agency in connection with the NEET paper leak.
The agency said in its chargesheet that Kulkarni was given plain sheets in the confidential section—located on the first floor of the NTA headquarters—for rough work during translation and back-translation of the NEET-UG questions—which he eventually used to make a brief list of all 135 questions in the form of small chits. He also managed to note down the answer options, the CBI has alleged.
“There was no practice of checking/frisking of experts during entry/exit from the confidential section at NTA. For easier questions, he could simply remember them and write them down in a book once he returned to his hotel room at the end of the day. Accused PV Kulkarni (A-2) did back-translation work for 3 sets of questions (135 questions in total) from 31.03.2026 to 02.04.2026, i.e., over a period of 3 days,” the chargesheet stated.
On Havaldar, the CBI claimed she was assigned the responsibility of translating question set number two and back-translation of sets one, two and four of her subject, physics. According to the agency, its probe allegedly revealed that she used to note down the questions in brief after returning to her hotel in Delhi at the end of the day.
On Mandhare, the botany subject expert, the agency found that she was assigned the task of translating questions from English to Marathi and back-translating zoology questions to English. In a modus operandi similar to Havaldar’s, she also allegedly made use of her recall value and used to mark relevant paragraphs in the NCERT textbooks after each day’s work.
“Due to her decades of experience with the same material, she was easily able to co-relate the questions with the NCERT textbook material. Accused Manisha Gurunath Mandhare (A1) attended the NTA NEET UG 2026 exam translation and back-translation related work of botany and zoology between 09.03.2026 and 05.04.2026,” the agency alleged.
The CBI further claimed that these malpractices were not detected because the NTA didn’t monitor its CCTV footage at its headquarters.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
