New Delhi: Weeks before the scheduled date of this year’s NEET-UG examination, Jamwa Ramgarh resident Mangilal Biwal reached out to a Nashik man with a specific request—a copy of the question paper. Biwal wanted the question paper for his younger son, who was appearing in the highly competitive examination scheduled for 3 May.
The man in Nashik, Shubham Khairnar, roped in Yash Yadav in Gurugram, who allegedly asked his aide Yash Kakkar to collect documents such as 10th and 12th Board certificates and a cheque as security from Biwal.
They struck a deal that if the question paper supplied by Khairnar had 150 of the questions from the NEET paper, Biwal would pay them Rs 10-12 lakh.
The central agency submitted these findings from its two-day-long probe into the NEET 2026 question paper leak before a Special CBI court in Delhi Thursday, when five of those arrested were produced.
The agency sought seven days’ custody to unearth the larger conspiracy and the module busted initially by the Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG). The judge granted the CBI seven days custody of all five accused.
“The first reason for seeking police custody is to unearth the larger conspiracy since the leaked question paper was circulated across the country. The second reason for seeking their custody is to identify the extent of the access… to identify how many public servants and individuals associated with the printing press are involved in the process,” CBI Special Public Prosecutor Neetu Singh told the Special CBI Judge Ajay Gupta during the hearing.
Peeling back the layers, one by one
The report of the Rajasthan SOG revealed a clear breach in the sanctity of the examination, as question papers were circulated before the exam on 3 May. After studying the report on the leak, the Ministry of Education called in the CBI.
The agency took into custody five accused—Mangilal Biwal, his son Vikas Biwal, brother Dinesh Biwal, along with Shubham Khairnar of Nashik and Yash Yadav of Gurugram. They were taken into custody and brought to the national capital.
Later, Pune Crime Branch also handed over custody of two more accused—Dhananjay Lokhande and Manisha Waghmare—for facilitating Khairnar in the leak and circulation of the question paper.
In his submission before the court, the CBI counsel said Khairnar was the one who had first sent the question paper to Yash Yadav over Telegram as part of his plan to send the leaked document to Mangilal.
“In April 2026, Shubham Khairnar informed Yash Yadav that Mangilal had reached out to him for arranging the leaked question papers for his younger son, for Rs 12 lakh. Shubham allegedly offered leaked question papers on 29 April,” Special Public Prosecutor (SSP) Meetu Singh told the court.
“Shubham asked Yash Yadav to arrange original class 10 and 12th documents, NEET roll number and cheque as security deposits. Yadav further instructed his friend Yash Kakkar to collect those documents from Mangi Lal, but allegedly did not send all these to Shubham,” he further submitted. On 29 April, Shubham allegedly informed Yash Yadav that he would provide question papers for Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, containing 500-600 questions. According to the CBI probe, Shubham received a hard copy of the paper the previous day from Pune.
“What they did was that they did not provide the same questions (as in the NEET question paper) but instead mixed 100s or more questions from all subjects that would enable their admission without coming to anyone’s notice,” the CBI counsel further submitted.
As part of the plan, Yadav allegedly received the PDF file of the leaked question paper through Telegram. A PDF file containing exact questions has been recovered from his phone, while WhatsApp chats between him, Shubham and Mangi Lal have also been recovered by the agency, CBI’s counsel informed the court.
“Mangilal received the leaked question paper from Yadav on 29 April on Telegram, and a deal was struck for Rs 10 lakh if 150 questions matched the original question paper,” the CBI SPP further explained.
Mangilal allegedly provided printed copies of the questions to his son, Aman Biwal, his cousin, Rishi, and Gunjan—all of whom were NEET candidates. He also provided leaked question papers to a friend of his son, Vikas Biwal, and to a teacher Satya Narayan. These questions were shared along with the correct answers.
During his interrogation by CBI sleuths, Mangilal’s son Vikas revealed that he came into contact with Yash Yadav during coaching at Sikar and that he had allegedly claimed that he could leak the NEET UG 2026 question paper for money. Vikas also allegedly revealed that his younger brother, Aman, was promised a question paper by Yadav for money.
Yash had allegedly also promised Vikas that if he arranged more candidates to whom Yash could sell the leaked questions paper, he would give the paper free to Vikas. As part of the deal, Vikas contacted various candidates with the plan and shared their contact information with Yadav over WhatsApp and Instagram.
“He also stated that leaked papers were circulated among various candidates,” SPP Singh emphasised. Yadav allegedly deleted incriminating evidence from his iPhone, such as chat history with Vikas and his father, Mangilal,” SPP submitted.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: NEET aspirants returning to Sikar—find a room, process the paper leak and start all over again