New Delhi: In a major breakthrough, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a professor, who was allegedly the source of the leaked National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) 2026 question paper. He was associated with the National Testing Agency (NTA), ThePrint has learnt.
P.V. Kulkarni, from Pune, was part of the committee that set the question paper for the exam, multiple sources confirmed.
“He was teaching in Dayanand Science college in Latur and was also involved with the setting of the NEET paper. It is from him that the paper was first leaked,” a source said.
Adding, “He had leaked the paper in exchange for a huge some of money. Those details, however, will become clear in due course.”
Arrested in Pune, Kulkarni will be brought to Delhi. “His transit remand is being taken,” the first source said.
This is a big development as it exposes the involvement of the testing agency in the leak, which could not be established in the earlier leak of 2024.
The CBI had found that Pune-based Dhananjay Lokhande received the leaked question paper from his “source” within the NTA.
Originally from Maharashtra’s Ahilyangar district, Lokhande has been based in Pune for the last few years. The CBI arrested Lokhande, who runs a career counselling firm in Pune, along with his agent, Pune-based businesswoman Manisha Waghmare.
It has made a total of seven arrests since launching a probe Tuesday.
NTA director general Abhishek Singh told ThePrint that he was not aware of the CBI findings in the case.
Meanwhile, CBI produced Pune resident and a key link in the conspiracy—Dhananjay Lokhande—before a special court. In the remand application before the court, the agency argued that Lokhande obtained a copy of the leaked question paper from Waghmare.
“The accused Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande, who is known to Shubham, collected NEET examination 2026 material from co-accused Manisha Waghmare, who is a resident of Pune,” the agency argued before the court in its remand application.
Additionally, the agency explained that his police custody was required to identify the NTA officials involved in the leak of question papers for the NEET-UG 2026 examination.
The court sent Lokhande to the agency’s custody for six days, while Waghmare will be
produced before a court in Delhi Saturday.
During court proceedings while seeking remand for the five accused arrested earlier, the CBI had emphasised that Nashik man Shubham obtained a copy of the leaked question paper from a man in Pune, who obtained illegal access to it from an “NTA source”.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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