The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the probe into the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak after Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) claimed that a “paper leak mafia” sold leaked exam questions disguised as a “guess paper” for anywhere between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh per copy, according to a report by The Times of India.
The leaked material allegedly contained all 90 biology questions and 45 chemistry questions from the May 3 NEET-UG examination. Investigators believe the network stretched across Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Kerala.
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A CBI team reached the SOG headquarters in Jaipur late Tuesday to question suspects detained by the Rajasthan Police. The agency said it had registered an FIR based on a complaint from the Union education ministry’s department of higher education, invoking charges including criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft and destruction of evidence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024.
“These questions were hidden inside a guess paper containing over 400 questions,” a senior SOG official told TOI.
In Nashik, police detained a 27-year-old man from Nandgaon who allegedly altered his appearance to avoid detection. Deputy Commissioner of Police Kirankumar Chavan said Nashik Police acted on a request from Rajasthan authorities and would hand over the suspect once the Rajasthan Police team arrived.
According to the report, the suspect is a third-year Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery student in Madhya Pradesh’s Sehore and also worked part-time as a career counsellor in Nashik. He allegedly received a consignment from an unidentified person and forwarded it to someone in Gurgaon.
The SOG told TOI that the leaked paper was circulated from Jaipur, Sikar and Gurgaon to Nashik and Pune. Investigators also recovered messages allegedly sent to students claiming that memorising questions from the “guess paper” would help them clear the examination even without adequate preparation.
The report further said a Sikar resident had received the guess paper on May 7 and alerted local authorities, but the complaint was allegedly ignored. The individual later emailed the National Testing Agency (NTA), which then shared the information with another central agency that contacted the SOG.
Investigators reportedly found several matches between the guess paper and the official NEET-UG question paper. “We realised that the cartel involved in leaking the paper had a network stretching across the country,” an SOG source told TOI.
Officials in Rajasthan said preliminary investigations suggest the leak did not originate in the state. IGP (SOG) Ajay Pal Lamba reportedly said a Haryana-based suspect had obtained the paper from someone in Nashik.
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Among those questioned by the CBI was Sikar-based Rakesh Mandawaria, described by investigators as a “paper solver” and “consultant”. He was detained by the SOG on May 8 after allegedly claiming that over 120 questions from the guess paper he circulated to clients had appeared in the NEET-UG exam.
“We have questioned 150 students and 70 others so far,” an SOG official told TOI, adding that investigators suspect the leaked questions were initially intended for a limited group of buyers before being circulated more widely.
