NEET UG 2026 Paper Leak: CBI Arrests Pune Student, Total Arrests Reach 12
Pune, 26th May 2026: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested a student in connection with the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, taking the total number of arrests in the matter to 12.
According to investigators, the student allegedly received physics questions ahead of the examination from Manisha Havaldar, the headmistress of Seth Hiralal Saraf Prashala, who was arrested by the CBI on May 22. Following her arrest, the school administration suspended her from service.
Officials told the court that several accused persons involved in the case had reportedly saved the student’s contact number under the nickname “God” in their mobile phones, indicating his alleged central role in the operation.
Later in the night, Special CBI Judge RR Mende granted transit remand to the accused student, allowing the agency to take him to Delhi for further investigation, Special Public Prosecutor Abhayraj Arikar said.
The CBI alleged that Havaldar verbally communicated the NEET physics questions to the student before the examination. Investigators claimed the student then wrote down the questions on paper, took photographs of the handwritten notes and forwarded them to Havaldar’s husband through digital communication channels. The original handwritten sheets were later destroyed, according to the probe agency.
During the investigation, the CBI recovered 23 pages containing handwritten physics questions, original NEET examination papers, official certificates issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA), and cash allegedly linked to the case.
The agency further claimed that Havaldar, during questioning, admitted to reconstructing physics questions from memory in April and sharing them with a student. Initially, she reportedly told investigators that the questions had been supplied under instructions from an NTA chemistry expert.
The CBI also stated that, later, the same set of questions was circulated through a messaging application at the request of co-accused Manisha Mandhare.
Investigators informed the court that Havaldar allegedly used both her personal mobile phone and her husband’s device to share the material connected to the examination leak.
According to the agency, the physics questions reconstructed and circulated by the accused closely resembled the questions that eventually appeared in the actual NEET-UG 2026 examination.
