The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a charge sheet against 13 arrested accused persons in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case. The charge sheet comes days after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned from the post on July 25, in the wake of over a month-long agitation led by the Cockroach Janta Party. All of the accused are currently in judicial custody.
The agency has invoked provisions related to criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, destruction of evidence, and other associated charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act. The CBI has cited 360 witnesses, 422 documents, and 43 material objects in the charge sheet. The agency registered the case based on a complaint lodged by the Department of Higher Education on May 12, alleging irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG 2026 examination, which was held on May 3.
The test was subsequently cancelled. The CBI formed multiple teams with 72 officials and personnel, along with eight cyber forensic experts, to investigate the case. Searches were carried out at 92 locations in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and other States.
These searches led to the seizure of incriminating material like digital and communication devices, documents, etc. Forensic imaging and analysis of the incriminating material has been undertaken, said the agency, adding that the source of the leak was unearthed within weeks. Among the arrested are three National Testing Agency (NTA) subject experts in chemistry, biology, and physics. Another key accused is Shivaraj Motegaonkar, a professor and owner of RCC Coaching Institute in Maharashtra’s Latur.
Several alleged intermediaries who sourced and distributed the leaked questions were also held. Tejas Harshadkumar Shah, physics faculty and chief operating officer at APMA Coaching Institute, Pune, was also arrested. In a separate development, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor participated in a debate on The Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill-2026 in the Lok Sabha, where he stated that the bill brought by the government to tackle paper leaks was not enough.
Tharoor asserted that the ambition cannot simply be to punish a leak more severely, but to prevent it from happening in the first place. He called for a comprehensive reform of India’s examination architecture and said the country must move away from the current single, high-stakes, high-stress, examination model, where the future of millions is decided in a few gruelling hours. Tharoor also pointed out that of the 14 major examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency, six have had allegations of paper leaks and other discrepancies.
