NEET-UG 2026 Paper Leak: CBI Unlikely To Name NTA, Government Officials In Charge Sheet

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is unlikely to name any central government or National Testing Agency (NTA) official as an accused in its final charge sheet in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, Hindustan Times reported citing officials familiar with the investigation. The agency is expected to submit the document within a week.

“The agency will not implicate any government official - including the NTA office bearers - in its concluding charge sheet. Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the leak didn’t establish anyone else’s role beyond private individuals,” one officer said as reported by HT

“With this, our probe into the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak will be complete,” a second officer said.

Final Filing To Cover Three More Arrests

The CBI filed its first charge sheet on July 28, naming 13 accused, including NTA-appointed subject experts, coaching centre operators, middlemen and candidates. It subsequently arrested three more people alleged to have benefited from leaks through coaching centres.

The agency had continued examining the role of “other conspirators” while awaiting opinion reports from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents and Delhi University experts.

“The roles of these three individuals, along with the findings of the forensic experts, will be detailed in the concluding charge sheet, which we will file within a week. A thorough investigation was conducted to ascertain whether any NTA official or other government official was involved in the leak, but no such involvement was found,” the second officer said.

NEET Paper Leak

On May 12, the NTA cancelled the examination after at least 120 questions in a guess paper matched those in the May 3 test. The guess paper contained suggested questions compiled by subject experts and teachers using previous examination trends.

The discovery prompted protests in Parliament and street demonstrations under the Cockroach Janata Party banner, eventually leading to the resignation of then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Shashank Maurya, who took the May 3 examination and the June 21 retest, questioned the investigation’s findings concerning officials.

“The NEET paper leak couldn’t have happened without the involvement of NTA and education ministry officials. NTA officials are the main culprits and must be punished,” he said.

Subject Experts Accused Of Removing Questions

The first charge sheet named Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, the Botany and Zoology expert; Prahlad Vithalrao Kulkarni, the Chemistry expert; and Manisha Sanjay Havaldar, the Physics expert.

According to the CBI, the NTA assigned these experts to multiple stages of question-paper preparation, with one participating in all four stages, from item-writing to back-translation. They were also given access to all four final master question sets.

The agency alleged that Kulkarni copied 135 Chemistry questions and answer options onto small pieces of paper and removed them from the confidential area. Mandhare and Havaldar allegedly memorised questions and their parameters, then reconstructed them using textbooks.

NTA Revamps Examination Process

The education ministry removed 50 NTA staff on August 17. The agency subsequently said it had replaced 600 subject experts, reorganised its examination team and introduced a four-tier question-paper scrutiny system.

The CBI invoked provisions concerning criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and destruction of evidence, alongside the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024.

Its case relies on 360 witnesses, 422 documents and 43 material objects.