NEET UG Reserved Question Paper Set Too Was Leaked? How Was It Done? What Happens In Such A Scenario? | Explainers News
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What is NEET-UG reserved set? How was it leaked? What did the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) find? News18 explains
NEET-UG re-exam will be held on June 21.
The investigation into the NEET UG paper leak has revealed that not just the main paper, the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) reserved set too was leaked.
What is a reserved set? How was it leaked? What did the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) find?
WHAT IS A RESERVED PAPER SET?
A ‘reserved paper set’ is an entirely secondary, separate version of the question paper drafted alongside the primary one. It is kept under strict lock and key to act as an emergency backup in case the primary paper is compromised, lost, or hit by logistics failures.
However, during the CBI’s investigation into the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, it was revealed that both the primary and backup question pools were compromised because the leak occurred at the source — the paper-setting committee itself.
THE PAPER LEAK
During the investigation into the NEET-UG paper leak, the CBI revealed that the breach originated from inside the NTA’s own paper-setting committee. Rather than a single secure draft remaining intact, two separate sets of question papers — one handwritten and one typed — were leaked by committee experts, according to News18 Hindi and Times of India reports.
WHO LEAKED NEET-UG PAPERS?
The CBI arrested two NTA panel experts: PV Kulkarni (a retired chemistry professor) and Manisha Gurunath Mandhare (a senior botany teacher).
HOW WERE NEET-UG PAPERS LEAKED?
Professor PV Kulkarni (Chemistry expert) and Manisha Gurunath Mandhare (Botany and Zoology expert) utilized their clearance during the paper-setting phases in April. Because they were drafting the complete master pool—which includes the questions partitioned for both the primary and the reserved sets—they had immediate access to both.
Rather than carrying physical question papers out of high-security zones, the experts memorised or transcribed the compiled questions. Throughout late April, the panel experts used local coordinators like Manisha Waghmare to quietly mobilise select student groups. The experts held secret, highly restricted coaching sessions right inside their private residences in Pune.
During these sessions, the experts dictated the exact questions, the sequential multiple-choice options, and the matching answer keys. Students were strictly ordered to copy the dictation into their personal textbooks and notebooks.
The handwritten notes compiled by these select students did not remain isolated. Middlemen and regional educational consultants (operating out of Nashik and Jaipur) quickly intercepted these handwritten student notebooks. They used digital scanners to compile the dictated chemistry and biology questions into a massive 410-to-600 question PDF master document, which was disguised and circulated across online counseling channels as an elite “guess paper.”
Because the dictated content was taken directly from the initial master pool assigned to the paper-setting committee, both the primary set and the reserved backup set were systematically drained of their secrecy at the source. When educators in Sikar later cross-verified the leaked “guess paper” with the actual exam, they found an undeniable 135-question perfect match.
Because the reserved backup paper had been compiled by the exact same compromised committee pool, the NTA could not simply swap the leaked primary paper for the reserve paper—forcing a total cancellation of the exam.
HOW DID NEET-UG PAPER LEAK COME TO LIGHT?
The NEET-UG paper leak came to light through a whistleblower’s complaint and a subsequent timeline of cross-verification by educators.
The initial breakthrough occurred on May 2, at roughly 11:00 PM, when a student from Sikar, Rajasthan (who was studying in Kerala), managed to send a digital PDF copy of a highly detailed “guess paper” to his father back home.
The father, who operates a student PG accommodation facility in Sikar, realized the document was a massive compromise. He immediately flagged the matter by filing a complaint with the Udyog Nagar Police Station in Rajasthan and alerting the National Testing Agency (NTA).
Local biology and chemistry educators in Sikar spent hours cross-checking the leaked PDF with the actual examination papers distributed on May 3. They discovered a massive, undeniable overlap: 135 out of the total questions perfectly matched the actual test format. This translated to roughly 600 marks out of the 720-point total, confirming a severe systemic leak.
Recognizing the severity of the situation, the whistleblowers bypassed standard administrative routes to prevent a cover-up, formally alerting the Ministry of Home Affairs and the CBI. The NTA confirmed receiving the digital PDF trail on May 7, acknowledging its origins in Rajasthan.
The Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group (SOG) officially initiated a deep dive into the network, arresting 13 people in the Sikar and Jaipur areas within 48 hours. The digital footprints traced the paper’s path traveling from Nashik through Gurugram, Jaipur, and down to localized coaching networks, leading to a complete handover of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
HOW WIDE WAS THEIR NETWORK?
The syndicate operated as a highly coordinated chain stretching across at least six states:
The Source (Pune & New Delhi): NTA paper-setting panel experts PV Kulkarni and Manisha Mandhare accessed the raw, confidential question bank. The leak originated here, splitting into handwritten and typed drafts.
The Hand-Off Point (Nashik & Gurugram): The initial paper data was transferred electronically to a network overseen by an Ayurveda student (Yash Yadav) and middle-tier consultants.
The Digital Processing (Jaipur & Ahilya Nagar): In Jaipur, operators scanned the handwritten leak and compiled it with solved answer keys into a single, massive 410-question PDF “guess paper”.
The Distribution Hub (Sikar, Rajasthan): Once digitised, the file exploded across PG accommodations, career counselors, and major coaching institute loops in Sikar — affecting the central hub of India’s medical coaching industry.
The Distant Nodes (Kerala, Bihar, & Uttarakhand): The file traveled via end-to-end encrypted chats as far south as Kerala and east into Bihar, where localized networks sold copies to select groups.
NEET-UG PAPER LEAK: THE ARRESTS
- Manisha Gurunath Mandhare (Pune/Delhi): Arrested in Mathura and produced before the Delhi Rouse Avenue Court on May 17, she was sent to 14 days of CBI custody.
- Professor P.V. Kulkarni (Latur/Pune): The retired Chemistry lecturer and NTA subject expert identified as a primary kingpin. The Delhi court remanded him to 10 days of CBI custody.
- Manisha Waghmare (Pune): The key middleman who helped Kulkarni mobilize students for secret home coaching sessions. She was remanded to 10 days of CBI custody alongside Kulkarni.
- Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande (Ahilyanagar): Accused of passing confidential test materials to secondary loops. The court remanded him to 6 days of CBI custody.
- Shubham Khairnar (Nashik): Received and circulated leaked data. Sent to 7 days of CBI custody (remand valid until May 20).
- Yash Yadav (Gurugram): Ayurveda student who operated as a regional contact point. Sent to 7 days of CBI custody (remand valid until May 20).
- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal, and Dinesh Biwal (Jaipur): Localized network administrators responsible for compiling and scanning the paper. All three were placed in 7 days of CBI custody (remand valid until May 20)
WHAT IS THE FINANCIAL SCALE OF NEET-UG PAPER LEAK?
Unlike unstructured leaks, this syndicate charged students dynamic rates. Desperate parents and students reportedly paid anywhere between ₹2 Lakh to ₹5 Lakh for early access to the scanned questionnaire. To obscure the massive money trail, middlemen like Manisha Waghmare utilized over two dozen different bank accounts to receive structured electronic payments from parents just days before the exam.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?
The scale of this leak compromised the academic integrity of the test on an unprecedented level, leading to the complete cancellation of the May 3 exam for all 23 lakh medical aspirants across the country. Unlike prior years where discrepancies were isolated to small clusters, the CBI’s findings that roughly 135 to 140 questions directly matched the actual test paper made a localised cleanup impossible, necessitating the nationwide re-exam on June 21.
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