New Delhi, May 15: Three days into its investigation, the CBI on Friday claimed to have cracked the NEET paper leak case with the arrest of a Pune-based professor alleged to be the “source” of the leaked question paper.
Professor P V Kulkarni, a Chemistry domain expert from Latur who had served for years on panels involved in setting NEET question papers, was arrested from his residence in Pune, officials said.
“P V Kulkarni has been arrested at Pune after thorough interrogation,” a CBI spokesperson said.
Investigators alleged that Kulkarni misused his privileged access to confidential material by conducting special coaching sessions at his residence during the last week of April, where he dictated questions, options and answers that later appeared in the NEET-UG examination held on May 3.
“During the last week of April, 2026, he had mobilised students with the help of another accused, Manisha Waghmare, who was arrested by CBI on May 14,” the spokesperson said.
According to the agency, students allegedly paid several lakh rupees to attend the sessions, where they wrote down the dictated questions in notebooks that later “exactly matched” the actual NEET-UG paper.
The CBI said its probe had identified both the source of the leaked Chemistry paper and the middlemen involved in recruiting students for the coaching sessions.
“In the last 24 hours, CBI has also conducted searches at several locations across the country and seized several incriminating documents, electronic gadgets and mobile phones,” the spokesperson said, adding that forensic and technical analysis of the seized material was underway.
On Thursday, the agency arrested Dhananjay Lokhande from Ahilyanagar and his associate Manisha Waghmare from Pune.
Officials said Lokhande allegedly received the paper from Waghmare and passed it to Nashik-based Shubham Khairnar, who then shared it with Yash Yadav for further circulation.
The CBI has also arrested Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal from Jaipur, along with Yadav from Gurugram and Khairnar from Nashik.
According to investigators, Khairnar informed Yadav in April that Mangilal Biwal was willing to pay Rs 10-12 lakh to obtain leaked NEET-UG 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly shared 500-600 questions with Yadav, assuring enough marks to secure admission to a reputed medical college.
Officials alleged that Mangilal Biwal obtained the leaked paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal through NEET coaching classes in Rajasthan’s Sikar. The deal was allegedly finalised for Rs 10 lakh.
The paper was then allegedly shared with family members and others. Investigators said Yadav also asked Vikas Biwal to identify more NEET aspirants who could buy the leaked questions to help recover costs.
The agency said analysis of seized digital devices had uncovered incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. Forensic examination is being conducted to retrieve deleted data.
The CBI registered an FIR and formed multiple teams to investigate the alleged leak, which led to the cancellation of the May 3 examination.
NEET-UG was conducted across 551 cities in India and 14 overseas centres, with nearly 23 lakh candidates registered for the examination conducted by the National Testing Agency.
The NTA said it received information regarding alleged malpractice on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination, and escalated the inputs to central agencies the following morning for “independent verification and necessary action.”–(PTI)
