NEET-UG 2026 paper leak: How questions hidden in 400-question ‘guess paper’ were sold across India for Rs 10-25 lakh

JAIPUR: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday took over the probe into the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak after Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) said a “paper leak mafia” sold a leaked “guess paper” for Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh a copy, with biology and chemistry questions matching the May 3 exam.

A CBI team reached the SOG office late Tuesday evening to take custody of the case and was expected to question several suspects further. Till late evening, the team remained inside the SOG headquarters, coordinating with senior SOG officials over the probe and the transfer of suspect custody.





The CBI said it registered a case based on a written complaint from the department of higher education in the Union education ministry. In a statement, it said an FIR had been lodged over alleged irregularities and paper leak in the conduct of the NEET-UG 2026 examination, invoking charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft and destruction of evidence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), apart from offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024.

Sources said multiple suspects included Sikar-based so-called counsellor Rakesh Mandawaria, who was among the first questioned for his alleged role in circulating the leaked “guess papers”.

Mandawaria, who runs RK Consultancy, was detained for questioning by Rajasthan SOG on May 8.

A product of Jawahar Navodaya School, Patan, he prepared for medical entrance exams for about five to six years since 2008 and continued to live in Sikar, where he provided services as a “paper solver” and “consultant”. Mandawaria is accused of leaking the “guess paper” after claiming that over 120 questions appeared from the version he shared.

Following his claim, a coaching teacher filed a complaint at Sikar’s Udyog Nagar police station, leading the police and SOG to take him into custody.

Some of the suspects being questioned by the CBI at the SOG office include Vikram Yadav, Yogesh Parjapat, Sandip Haritwal, Nitesh Ajmera, Mangilal, Dinesh, Vikash, Yesh Yadav and Satyanarayan Choudhary.

SOG said the question paper was leaked and disguised as a “guess paper”, circulated widely from Jaipur, Sikar and Gurgaon to Nashik and Pune. Investigators said the guess paper contained all questions from the biology and chemistry sections; the physics section could not be traced.

“These questions were tactfully hidden inside a guess paper containing over 400 questions, which included all 90 biology questions and all 45 chemistry questions from the official NEET 2026 question paper,” senior SOG officials said.

The SOG has not formally arrested anyone so far.

Sources in SOG said that on May 7, an individual in Sikar district received the guess paper and flagged the issue to local authorities, but the complaint was allegedly ignored. The individual then wrote a detailed email to the National Testing Agency (NTA), which shared the input with another central agency that, in turn, alerted the SOG. Upon comparing the guess paper with the official NEET question paper, sources said several matching questions were discovered.

“We dispatched a team to camp in Sikar. As the investigation peeled back the layers, we realised that the racket involved in leaking the paper had a network stretching across the country, covering Jaipur, Sikar, Gurgaon, Nashik and Dehradun, and extending all the way to Kerala,” the sources added.

Inspector General of Police, SOG, Ajay Pal Lamba, said a Haryana-based man in Rajasthan obtained the paper from someone in Nashik. He also said over two dozen suspects have appeared before the CBI teams since they arrived in Jaipur.

Lamba said the leaked question paper also reached students in Sikar and Jaipur, adding that suspects include aspirants and their parents. “The paper leak epicentre was not Rajasthan,” Lamba said.

“We have questioned 150 students and 70 other people so far over their suspected involvement in the case,” another official said.

“We suspect that the questions were meant to be shared with only a few select buyers, but due to greed, someone routed them outside the designated network and began selling them independently,” the official added.

Investigators also claimed to have recovered messages telling students that even if they had not prepared adequately, memorising the guess-paper questions would still help them secure admission to a medical college.

Meanwhile, Nashik Police Tuesday detained a man in connection with the NEET paper leak based on a request from Rajasthan Police. The Nashik Police Crime Branch Unit 2 apprehended the person and a team of Rajasthan Police was scheduled to reach Nashik to take the man in custody.