CBI Arrests Botany Teacher in NEET-UG 2026 Paper Leak Case

The central probe agency said senior Botany teacher Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, who had access to the Biology question paper as an NTA-appointed expert, allegedly disclosed examination questions to select students during private coaching sessions weeks before the test held on May 3.

CBI officials said Mandhare was arrested in Delhi after detailed questioning.

Saturday’s arrest came a day after the CBI arrested P.V. Kulkarni, a Chemistry lecturer from Latur in Maharashtra, who has been identified as the primary source of the Chemistry paper leak.

“Manisha Mandhare, a senior Botany teacher from Pune, was part of the NEET-UG 2026 examination process on behalf of the National Testing Agency and is the primary source of the Biology paper leak,” the agency said.

She was appointed by the NTA as an expert and had complete access to the Botany and Zoology question papers. During April 2026, she allegedly mobilised prospective NEET candidates through Manisha Waghmare of Pune and conducted special coaching classes for them at her residence in Pune.

During these classes, she allegedly explained and disclosed several questions from Botany and Zoology, asking students to note them down in their notebooks and mark them in their textbooks. A majority of these questions reportedly matched the actual NEET-UG 2026 question paper. Waghmare was arrested by the CBI on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Saturday sent alleged kingpin P.V. Kulkarni and another accused, Manisha Waghmare, to 10 days’ CBI custody in connection with the NEET paper leak case.

Special CBI Judge Ajay Gupta remanded the two accused to CBI custody after the probe agency submitted that they needed to be taken outside the national capital for further investigation and that the larger conspiracy had to be probed.

Special Public Prosecutor Neetu Gupta, appearing for the CBI, sought 14 days’ remand for interrogating the accused. During the proceedings, the agency said Kulkarni was a subject expert and had been associated with setting the NEET-UG 2026 question paper. It also said co-accused Dhananjay Lokhande had collected the leaked material from Waghmare.

After considering the submissions of the agency and the defence counsel, the court remanded Kulkarni and Waghmare to 10 days’ CBI custody.

In the last 24 hours, the CBI also conducted searches at six locations across the country and seized several incriminating documents, laptops, bank statements and mobile phones. The agency said detailed analysis of the seized material was under way.

So far, nine accused have been arrested in the case from Delhi, Jaipur, Gurugram, Nashik, Pune and Ahilyanagar.

Of them, five accused have already been produced before the court and taken into seven days’ police custody for detailed interrogation. Two accused arrested earlier were produced before a court in Pune and shifted to Delhi on transit remand. They are being produced before the Delhi court.

The agency said the investigation so far had identified the alleged sources of the Chemistry and Biology paper leaks, as well as the middlemen involved in mobilising students who allegedly paid lakhs of rupees to attend special coaching classes where questions expected in the NEET-UG 2026 examination were dictated and discussed.

The investigation centres on the alleged leak of the NEET-UG 2026 question paper. The National Testing Agency cancelled the test, taken by nearly 23 lakh medical aspirants on May 3, after concluding that the examination had been compromised. The agency said candidate fees would be refunded and a re-examination would be held.

The latest arrest takes the total number of people arrested in the case to nine since the CBI registered the case on May 12 following a complaint from the Ministry of Education.

Earlier, the agency arrested eight people. Five were arrested on May 13 — three members of the Biwal family from Jaipur, one person from Gurugram near Delhi and one from Nashik in Maharashtra. Two more arrests followed, with Dhananjay Lokhande from Rahuri in Ahilyanagar district and Manisha Waghmare from Pune handed over to the CBI by Maharashtra Police. Kulkarni was arrested on May 15.

The CBI suspects that the paper was circulated through a multi-state network of intermediaries, some linked to coaching centres, with students allegedly paying between ₹2 lakh and ₹5 lakh for access.