New Delhi | The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
Latur | The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday detained a retired faculty member of a local college in Maharashtra's Latur in connection with a probe into the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak, an official said.
Latur city is known as a coaching class hub and attracts students from across Maharashtra.
The NEET (UG) 2026 exam for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges, held on May 3, was cancelled on Tuesday amid allegations of paper leak. The government asked the CBI to carry out a comprehensive inquiry into the "irregularities".
A parent of a student lodged a complaint at the Superintendent of Police's office here on Tuesday, claiming that 42 questions in a mock test conducted by a private coaching institute in Latur were identical to those that appeared in the NEET.
A senior police official said the CBI team detained one retired faculty member of a college here in connection with the probe.
However, police officials are maintaining strict confidentiality regarding the identity of the detained person and details of the investigation.
It is not yet clear whether the detained person is directly connected to the coaching institutes under scrutiny or linked to some other aspect of the case.
Earlier, the police in Latur district questioned six persons, including coaching class staff, students and counsellors, in the paper leak case.
Before this, the CBI detained three persons from parts of Maharashtra for their alleged connection to the case. They are Shubham Khairnar (30) from Nashik, Manisha Waghmare from Pune and Dhananjay Lokhande (26) from Rahuri in Ahilyanagar.