New Delhi, May 14: The investigation into the NEET-UG paper leak intensified on Thursday after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested two more accused and expanded its probe into the possible involvement of officials linked to the examination process.
The newly arrested accused have been identified as Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune. The arrests came after the agency carried out searches at 14 locations across multiple states over the last 24 hours, officials said.
Investigators are now examining the role of individuals associated with the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations that had access to the printing and handling of question papers. Officials said the possibility of involvement of public servants has not been ruled out.
According to the probe, the leak network allegedly operated through a chain of middlemen who circulated confidential questions before the examination. The agency had earlier arrested Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal from Jaipur, besides Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
The investigation revealed that Khairnar allegedly supplied a large set of leaked questions to Yadav, who then negotiated deals with candidates and their families seeking admission to reputed medical colleges. Officials said the arrangement involved payments running into several lakhs of rupees in exchange for access to questions expected to appear in the examination.
The accused are also suspected of sharing the material with multiple candidates to recover the money spent on procuring the paper. Digital devices seized during searches have reportedly yielded chats, question sets and other electronic evidence connected to the conspiracy.
The CBI is now conducting forensic analysis of the seized devices to retrieve deleted data and establish the complete chain of communication behind the leak.
The NEET-UG 2026 examination was conducted on May 3 across 551 cities in India and 14 overseas centres, with nearly 23 lakh candidates appearing for the highly competitive medical entrance test.
The NTA had informed that inputs regarding suspected malpractice surfaced on May 7, following which the matter was referred to central agencies for detailed investigation.
Meanwhile, the Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) claimed that a chemistry “guess paper” circulated before the examination contained around 410 questions, including nearly 120 that allegedly matched the final test paper.