- CBI concluded NEET-UG leak probe, filed supplementary chargesheet.
- NTA canceled May 3 exam after widespread paper leak.
- CBI named private individuals; found no government official involvement.
- Consequently, NTA underwent major overhaul, removing staff and experts.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday filed a supplementary chargesheet in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, with officials familiar with the development saying the investigation into the leak had concluded.
The latest chargesheet, submitted before a Delhi court, names one additional private individual. The agency had named 13 accused in its first chargesheet, filed on July 28, including three subject experts appointed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), middlemen and coaching centre representatives.
“No government official has been named,” an officer said, reported Hindustan Times.
NEET-UG 2026 Paper Leak: What Happened?
The NTA announced the cancellation of the NEET-UG 2026 examination on May 12 after at least 120 questions in a guess paper were found to match questions in the examination held on May 3. A guess paper is a compilation of suggested questions prepared by subject experts and teachers based on previous trends and patterns.
The leak was detected a week after the examination, triggering widespread protests in Parliament and across the country. The controversy eventually led to the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan after millions of young people took to the streets under the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) banner.
The CBI filed its first chargesheet on July 28, naming 13 accused. They included three NTA-appointed subject experts: Manisha Gurunath Mandhare for Botany and Zoology, Prahlad Vithalrao Kulkarni for Chemistry, and Manisha Sanjay Havaldar for Physics.
CBI Includes Forensic Findings
When it filed the first chargesheet, the CBI had kept its investigation into the role of other alleged conspirators open. It said it was awaiting expert opinion reports from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents (GEQD) and Delhi University experts.
An officer said the supplementary chargesheet also incorporates the findings of the forensic experts. Another officer said the agency had conducted a detailed investigation to establish whether any NTA official or other government official was involved in the leak, but found no evidence of such involvement.
According to the CBI’s first chargesheet, the NTA reused the same three subject experts at multiple stages of preparing the NEET-UG 2026 question paper. One expert was involved across all four stages, from item-writing to back-translation.
The agency also alleged that the experts were allowed to access all four master question sets during the final stage of the process. This gave them prolonged and continuous exposure to highly sensitive examination material.
The CBI invoked provisions relating to criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and destruction of evidence, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. The agency said its case was supported by 360 witnesses, 422 documents and 43 material objects.
NTA Undergoes Major Overhaul After Paper Leak
The Centre has announced several changes to the NTA in the months since the paper leak controversy. The Union Education Ministry removed 50 NTA staff members on August 17.
The agency subsequently said it had revamped its examination team, removed 600 subject experts and brought in new experts. It also introduced a four-tier system to scrutinise question papers.
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