New Delhi: It started with a PDF file circulating on WhatsApp. Of the 410 questions in it, nearly 120 appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) (UG) examination held on 3 May. The PDF file, said to be a ‘guess paper’, is now the subject of a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET (UG), has cancelled the examination, leaving more than 22 lakh aspirants who appeared for it in the lurch.
Two days prior, the NTA had in a statement said it was aware of a probe by Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG) into alleged irregularities in NEET (UG) 2026. According to sources, a central agency first came across the PDF on 7 May. Its contents set off alarm bells, reviving fears of yet another NEET (UG) leak scandal—after the one in 2024.
What is different this time is that despite the leak being established in 2024, the examination was not cancelled, with authorities terming it an “isolated incident of malpractice”.
“Last time the paper wasn’t cancelled but this time they didn’t take a chance. Who is behind the leak and how it happened remains a matter of investigation but prima facie it appears to follow the same template,” a source in the SOG told ThePrint.
The SOG, it is learnt, has questioned nearly two dozen aspirants as yet.
Addressing a press conference in Jaipur on 11 May, SOG chief ADG Vishal Bansal said the probe was launched after Rajasthan DGP Rajeev Sharma received a tip-off on 7 May about a ‘guess paper’ circulating on WhatsApp among aspirants. “This question bank contained 410 questions in total, out of which 120 questions in chemistry and biology were found in the main paper, which had 200 questions,” Sharma said.
The NEET (UG) 2026 examination was conducted in a single session on 3 May, from 2 pm to 5 pm, at examination centres across India and overseas.
“Question papers were transported in GPS-tracked vehicles bearing unique, traceable watermark identifiers. Examination halls operated under AI-assisted CCTV monitoring from a central control room, with biometric verification of every candidate and 5G jammers in operation,” the NTA had said on 10 May.
Sources aware of the developments said Maharashtra Police Tuesday detained one Shubham Khairnar, a final-year student of the BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) in Nashik, who was allegedly found to be in possession of a physical copy of the ‘guess paper’ in question.
“He received it from his network and transmitted it on digital medium,” a source told ThePrint. “A team of CBI from Mumbai is set to come for his interrogation,” the source added.
It is also learnt that a whistleblower stumbled upon the ‘guess paper’ which was being sold on a WhatsApp group for Rs 30,000. “This is what blew the lid off the entire racket,” said a second source privy to the probe.
The CBI registered a case Tuesday evening on a complaint from the Department of Higher Education for offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft and destruction of evidence under BNS, offences under Prevention of Corruption Act and offences under the Public Examination Prevention of Unfair Means Act 2024.
“…It has further been alleged that the NTA received a complaint and input regarding reported circulation of some documents pertaining to the NEET (UG) – 2026 Examination were circulated unauthorisedly prior to the conduct of the examination…The allegations indicate a possible compromise of the sanctity and integrity of the examination process,” a spokesperson for the agency said, adding that special teams have been formed and dispatched to various locations for investigation.
Also Read: Living in Haryana, test centre in Jaipur. CUET UG centre-allotment chaos takes over
2024 NEET (UG) scandal: ‘Papers stolen from trunks’
The NEET (UG) examination, conducted for undergraduate medical education admissions, was last under scrutiny in 2024, when a probe by the Bihar Police Economic Offences Unit (EOU) exposed a gap in the process which enabled an organised gang to compromise the system. The probe was later handed over to the CBI which registered a case and arrested 48 individuals, including a dozen students and suspected gang members initially taken into custody by the Bihar EOU.
The CBI gave a clean chit to NTA officials, claiming there was no evidence of their involvement in the question paper leak.
The tip-off about the leak came minutes after the NEET (UG) examination began on 5 May, 2024, prompting Patna Police to launch a probe into the matter. Preliminary findings indicated that suspected members of the gang took at least 35 aspirants to a playschool in Patna’s Khemnichak neighbourhood, where they were handed question papers in advance to allow them to memorise the answer key.
Over the course of its investigation into the matter, the CBI found that the question paper was stolen from a trunk at an examination centre in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh.
The principal of that centre was also the NTA’s coordinator in Hazaribagh.
The CBI later arrested one Pankaj Kumar, a civil engineer from NIT Jamshedpur, for allegedly stealing the NEET (UG) question paper from the trunk.
Terming the leak an ‘isolated incident’, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had then said, “It’s unfair to hold hostage the career of those candidates who have rightfully cleared the exam because of some isolated incidents of malpractice…I take full responsibility and anomalies in the system will be rectified.”
Curious case of ‘mastermind’
During its probe into the NEET (UG) 2024 question paper leak, the Bihar Police EOU had earmarked one Sanjeev Kumar, alias ‘Mukhiya’, as the mastermind behind the alleged plot to illegally access the question paper.
The role of Kumar’s son, an MBBS graduate from Patna Medical College and Hospital, was also under investigation. The CBI had also arrested four MBBS students from Patna AIIMS for helping the gang come up with the answer key—later forwarded to all syndicate members on WhatsApp.
While the CBI continued its probe along similar lines and arrested several suspects from Bihar’s Nalanda, where Sanjeev Kumar operated, the central agency differed from the EOU in identifying Mukhiya as the mastermind.
Sanjeev Kumar was first arrested by the EOU and later by the CBI but the central agency did not file a chargesheet against him, which allowed him to secure default bail. “There was an organised gang involved in the compromise, but ‘Mukhiya’ was not found to be involved. The organised gang running these syndicates were not limited to ‘Mukhiya’, and hence he was not charged in the case,” a CBI officer had told ThePrint then.
“All the accused arrested by EOU and also by the CBI pointed in the same direction, that Mukhiya’s people were behind this. It’s up to the CBI to make a final assessment,”a source in the EOU had told ThePrint then.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)