NTA reused the identical three topic consultants throughout a number of levels of making ready NEET-UG 2026’s query paper — certainly one of them throughout all 4 levels, from merchandise writing to back-translation — and allowed them to see all 4 of the examination’s grasp query units through the last stage, based on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s cost sheet within the paper leak case. Each design selections, the cost sheet units out, violated NTA’s personal protocols. Collectively, they gave a small group of consultants steady entry to most delicate materials for weeks.
“Many consultants have been concerned in a number of levels,” the cost sheet states. “From the moderation step onwards, the consultants involved have full entry to the ultimate units of questions. That is significantly so within the translation/back-translation stage as a single skilled can see all 4 of the ultimate grasp units.”
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A particular courtroom in Delhi is listed to take cognisance of the cost sheet of 94 pages on Monday. At its centre are three Pune-based experts appointed by the National Testing Agency — Manisha Gurunath Mandhare for Botany and Zoology, Prahlad Vithalrao Kulkarni for Chemistry, and Manisha Sanjay Havaldar for Physics. The cost sheet names 13 accused in all; the three consultants, who allegedly originated the leak, have been charged underneath sections masking prison breach of belief and misconduct by public servants. The CBI has mentioned it discovered no proof implicating any authorities official, together with any NTA office-bearer.
The place the entry got here from
The cost sheet locations the theft at NTA’s NSIC Constructing in Okhla, the place all 4 levels of paper preparation have been carried out in what the company itself calls a “sanitised surroundings.” Mandhare, per the cost sheet’s timeline, was engaged there throughout each stage: merchandise writing between February 20 and 24, vetting from March 5 to 7, translation from March 9 to 14, and back-translation from March 31 to April 2. Kulkarni’s providers have been used for merchandise writing (February 22 to 26) and back-translation (March 31 to April 2). Havaldar’s engagement was shorter — translation on March 14, then back-translation from March 31 to April 2.
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In that three-day window, all three might see all 4 grasp units without delay — internally recognized as Kailash, Shivalik, Set 2 and Set 3. NTA had not constructed firewalls between the units.
Kulkarni allegedly took plain rough-work paper equipped contained in the confidential corridor and transcribed 135 Chemistry questions with their reply choices onto small chits, which he then walked out of the constructing with. Mandhare and Havaldar, the CBI alleges, memorised the framing and precise parameters, returned to their Delhi lodge rooms, cross-referenced them in opposition to textbooks, and transcribed them into private notebooks.
The cost sheet’s findings sit awkwardly in opposition to what the Centre informed the Supreme Court docket simply days in the past. In an affidavit on the NEET-UG 2026 matter on August 4, the federal government mentioned question-paper preparation occurs in full isolation, with no digital gadgets allowed and each entrant frisked, and that the premises are “underneath CCTV surveillance and are guarded around the clock by the Central Armed Police Forces.” CBI’s cost sheet alleges that no frisking or metal-detector checks have been carried out when consultants entered or exited the confidential part, that CCTV feeds weren’t monitored dwell, and that solely 20-25 days of footage have been out there when investigators sought the recordings — work within the confidential part had ended on April 7, and the case was solely lodged on Might 12, so not one of the retained backup coated the related interval.
The federal government’s affidavit additionally mentioned no single particular person has visibility of the entire paper at any stage, and that a number of query units are developed independently by separate groups earlier than transferring in parallel by way of translation, printing and storage. By CBI’s account, from the moderation stage onwards, consultants dealing with the papers had entry to the entire last units, with translation and back-translation offering visibility of all 4 grasp papers concurrently.
The ‘leak’
Again in Pune, every of the three ran a unique operation with what they’d taken.
Mandhare ran her Biology courses at her residence in Ganga Osian Park, Pune, for eight college students. Class coordination went by way of a WhatsApp group she had created in November final 12 months and named “Fifa world cup 2026.” Her technique, because the cost sheet describes it, centred on the scholars’ personal textbooks — they purchased recent NCERT Class XI and XII copies, on which she marked precise paragraphs containing the leaked questions and dictated the query formulations into the margins. College students transcribed these right into a “honest pocket book,” which Mandhare corrected herself. Manisha Sanjay Waghmare, a Pune facilitator the CBI describes as operating the operation out of her husband’s dental clinic, later collected the bodily registers from college students, together with two named within the cost sheet— Diya Shinde and Snehanjali Deshmukh — to have them digitised.
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Kulkarni’s Chemistry courses ran at his home in Nanded Metropolis, Pune, from April 25-27, for 9 college students organized by Waghmare. Investigators corroborated the timing independently: MyGate, the access-control app utilized by his housing society, had logged the entry, exit and biometrics of visiting college students and oldsters by way of April, which the CBI cross-checked in opposition to name data and phone-location knowledge. CBI additionally recovered 9 photos of Chemistry questions and reply slips from Kulkarni’s cellphone that matched the precise paper, alongside WhatsApp chats through which a dad or mum requested for his handle at hand him a watch in change for questions.
Havaldar didn’t run courses of her personal. CBI’s account locations her on the centre of a sequence of one-off transactions as an alternative. On April 14, at her house, she dictated 68 Physics inquiries to Tejas Harshadkumar Shah, COO at Dr Abhang Prabhu Medical Academy in Pune, in change for ₹25,000 in money and a field of mangoes. Shah transcribed them onto 16 pages. On April 25, he despatched high-resolution WhatsApp photos of the transcript to Havaldar’s husband, Sanjay Sudhakar Havaldar, who forwarded them to Mandhare. On April 27, Mandhare introduced one Dr Usha Adhav to Havaldar’s workplace. Havaldar transferred the photographs to her workplace pc by USB, printed laborious copies for Adhav for one more ₹25,000, and — the cost sheet notes — the CCTV captured the change.
Kulkarni’s chits additionally travelled outdoors Pune. Kulkarni dictated the leaked inquiries to the son of Shivraj Motegaonkar, who runs the Renukai Profession Centre in Latur, as a part of the particular courses. Motegaonkar circulated handwritten Chemistry inquiries to his personal college students by way of a coaching-centre WhatsApp group and later posted a video on social media claiming he had “predicted the complete Chemistry paper for NEET UG 2026.” Most questions in his April mock take a look at appeared within the precise examination, CBI has mentioned.
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An skilled panel constituted by Delhi College later matched the recovered leaked materials in opposition to the 4 grasp units at CBI’s request. Of the 68 Physics questions Havaldar had dictated to Shah, the panel discovered that solely two didn’t seem in any of the 4 grasp units; the opposite 66 did. Throughout the broader physique of fabric recovered from aspirants and intermediaries, the match ran as excessive as 85% on units the three consultants had entry to.
The way it got here aside
A Kerala MBBS scholar forwarded the leaked PDFs to his father’s landlord in Sikar. The owner took them to an area Chemistry instructor, Shashikant Suthar. Suthar reported the leak on to the director basic of NTA on Might 7. NTA cancelled the examination 5 days later and handed the case to CBI.
Arrests started inside days. Waghmare was picked up on Might 14, Kulkarni on Might 15, Mandhare on Might 16, and Havaldar on Might 22. 9 others named within the cost sheet — together with Shah, the Pune middleman Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande, and Nashik-based Shubham Madhukar Khairnar, who allegedly paid Lokhande ₹25 lakh for the digitised materials — have been arrested by way of the identical interval. Because the digital chain widened, intermediaries used disguised usernames to blur the path — Yash Yadav operated on Telegram as “hunter23i” and communicated with Mangilal Biwal underneath “@Hindustan8360”; PDFs have been printed at cyber cafes with directions to delete the recordsdata afterwards.
Efforts to destroy the report started across the similar time, per the cost sheet. Havaldar burned her grasp Physics pocket book in her kitchen. Shah destroyed his 16-page handwritten pocket book. Lokhande, who had typists digitise Waghmare’s collected registers at her husband’s dental clinic, threw his iPhone 14 Professional Max onto a freeway. Khairnar mentioned he had dropped his main cellphone from a transferring bike. Shopkeepers alongside the chain have been compelled to Delete for Everybody on their messaging apps.
