CBI arrests retired professor on NTA panel that set NEET paper

NEW DELHI/CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: CBI on Friday said it had arrested a retired chemistry professor, who it identified as a key accused in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, in Latur.

PV Kulkarni, who spent over three decades in academia, was associated with National Testing Agency (NTA) as part of the panel that set the question paper. TOI had reported on Friday that CBI was looking at people who had prepared the questions.

Officials claimed Kulkarni first attempted to sell the paper locally but turned to a wider network after failing to convince buyers of its authenticity. “In the last week of April, Kulkarni mobilised st-udents, with the help of another accused named Manisha Waghmare, and conducted special coaching classes for them at his residence in Pune,” a CBI spokesperson said.

Kulkarni allegedly dictated the questions, along with the options and the correct answers, during these special classes. “The questions were handwritten by students in their notebooks and have tallied exactly with the actual question paper of the exam held on May 3,” CBI added.

The agency is now examining more people associated with setting questions, CBI sources said.

This leak is different from ones encountered previously. Probes into earlier leaks had detected people outside the core chain of access who were part of an organised gang and breached exam integrity at later stages, like distribution of papers at exam centres.

The investigation has also brought coaching institutes under scrutiny. CBI questioned the director of a Latur-based coaching centre with units across Maharashtra. Officials conducted searches at his residence, seized his cellphone and issued a notice for further questioning at the agency’s Pune office.

CBI, as earlier reported by TOI, has sought detailed information from NTA about every stakeholder who had access to the question paper before it was sealed: people who set the questions, subject experts, and professors and teachers on the panel that prepared the questions, besides details of the entire paper preparation process.

Kulkarni is the eighth arrest in the case. Waghmare was arrested earlier by CBI along with six others. Officials said Waghmare had received money from around 21 bank accounts ahead of the examination held on May 3. She runs a beauty parlour in Pune and was acting as an intermediary for co-accused Dhananjay Lokhande, a BAMS graduate who ran a consultancy in Pune.

In New Delhi, special CBI judge Ajay Gupta remanded Lokhande to six days’ police custody, with the CBI saying it was necessary to identify “NTA officials involved in the paper leak”.