New Delhi: Two doctors who allegedly paid Rs 3 lakh each for question papers, three students who got leaked question papers, and a man who paid Rs 235 from his Google Pay account for the photocopy of a leaked question paper in Pune—these are the star witnesses who are propping up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case into the leak of this year’s NEET-UG question.
Additionally, a man who travelled to and fro between Nashik and Pune to collect the leaked question paper on the instructions of the arrested accused Shubham Khairnar, has also been cited as a key prosecution witness in the case before the fast-track court in Delhi.
Overall, there are 12 such witnesses whose statements have been recorded under section 183(5) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Statements under this provision are recorded before a judicial magistrate and carry greater weight than those recorded before investigating officers under section 180 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. The agency has submitted a list of more than 160 witnesses whose testimony has been recorded under section 180 and presented before the court.
After registering a case on 12 May on the complaint of the Ministry of Education, the CBI has so far arrested 13 people and charged all of them, including three subject-matter experts on the National Testing Agency panel.
The subject-expert duo—P. V. Kulkarni and Manisha Mandhare—have been accused of leaking question papers during special classes held at their residences. The third subject expert, Manisha Havladar, has been accused of leaking Physics questions by sharing them with Mandhare as well as through a local source.
Students, doctors & logistics men
In its chargesheet, the agency has alleged that the proprietor of Sidhivinayak Hospital in Latur had referred two doctors to Kulkarni for being allegedly involved in the leaking of the Chemistry question paper. These two doctors paid Rs 3 lakh each to Kulkarni to secure question papers for their sons.
The fathers and sons were examined by a judicial magistrate, and their statements were recorded, revealing the entire plan and design by subject expert Kulkarni to share the leaked questions through special classes. In their disclosures, the two doctors revealed that the Rs 3 lakh each deal was reached at Kulkarni’s residence in Latur.
As part of its probe, the agency arrested a Pune-based businesswoman, Manisha Waghmare, tipped as a “central facilitator and conspirator” for being a key link between the source of the leaked questions and the beneficiaries in Rajasthan.
During analysis of her phone, the agency found that Waghmare shared a WhatsApp group with Kulkarni and two NEET aspirants. In their testimonies, both aspirants stated that they were on the list of aspirants who attend coaching sessions at the residences of Kulkarni and Mandhare. Based on their disclosures, the agency also seized their handwritten notes for Biology and Chemistry.
They further confirmed that Waghmare had taken their notes and books, which the agency has alleged were used to reproduce leaked questions and transfer them to Shubham Khairnar in Nashik.
The leaked questions that Waghmare obtained from the two students, she had allegedly sent to Kulkarni and Mandhare after processing them at her husband’s dental clinic in Pune.
The agency seized CCTV footage from a camera installed adjacent to her husband’s dental clinic, showing her arriving with two men on 20 April this year. Both were examined before a judicial magistrate, and their testimonies have been submitted to the fast-track court.
In their disclosures, the two have submitted that the handwritten leaked questions were typed at the dental clinic. Further, the agency seized CCTV footage from 27 April, showing Waghmare with Dhananjay Lokhande and one of his aides, who were seen talking to each other and proceeding towards the clinic.
According to the CBI, the man accompanying Lokhande confirmed that Lokhande gave him two sets of prints for making copies at a nearby shop, one typed and one handwritten. For the photocopying, the agency submitted that the person paid Rs 235 through his GPay account.
Moreover, he said that he handed over the leaked questions to another person outside a prominent Pune college. Both these men have been cited as key witnesses in the case, with the one who fetched the questions from Pune disclosing that he travelled from Nashik to Pune on Khairnar’s instructions and collected photocopies of leaked NEET UG 2026 questions from Lokhande’s aide.
The CBI has also documented the statements of two men in Nashik, including the one who helped Khairnar make copies of the leaked question papers. The other witness key to the CBI’s case is one of the NEET aspirants who was handed over the questions by Khairnar before passing on the questions to Yash Yadav in Gurugram from where the questions finally reached Rajasthan.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Entry logs, CCTV footage, WhatsApp chats—How CBI pieced together NEET-UG 2026 paper leak jigsaw
Latur is in Maharashtra, not Gujrat.
Also, the author should do some investigation into the so-called Latur Pattern of education.