- By Surarika Das
- Mon, 18 May 2026 02:58 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The NEET-UG paper leak was uncovered by a coaching centre teacher and his student. The story started when a student walked into a teacher's office with two documents on his phone. What first appeared as a post-exam rumour, soon shocked the teacher after he discovered that the PDFs had unthinkable similarities with the 2026 question paper.
The student said that he received the PDFs from his landlord. On May 3, met with students who returned from their coaching centres. One of the students asked Rajat (name changed), "Sir, what should I do?" showing the "guest paper" forwarded by his landlord. Rajat saw almost 135 questions matched with the actual exam paper.
Rajat quickly took Satish (name changed) to his office. He did not want to discuss such a sensitive topic in front of the students. After analysing for about three hours, the two found out that 45 chemistry questions and 90 biology questions matched the original exam paper.
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What Did They Do?
The first PDF contained about 60 pages of scanned, handwritten chemistry questions. The second PDF contained 87 pages of typed biology questions. “We were shocked. Satish called his landlord immediately, who told him that he got it from his son at around 11 pm on May 2. His son is studying medicine in Kerala. Both of us were conflicted." HT reported Rajat as saying.
The two first tried to go to the journalists. Later, they decided to file a police complaint. Rajat sent Satish to the police station. “There was a sub-inspector. He listened to the matter but asked Satish to return with a written complaint next morning and submit it to the station house officer,” Rajat said. That complaint never reached the next stage.
The Udyog Nagar SHO said that the complainant did not return the next morning. It was such a sensitive tip-off. How could we have lodged an FIR without any strong evidence and a detailed complaint in writing?" Hindustan Times quoted the SHO as saying.
After doing some research, Rajat was sure that the paper was not leaked from Sikar. In Sikar, the only possible way to leak the paper was from centres once the questions reached there on the exam day. But it had already been leaked and had arrived in Sikar the night before,” Rajat said. Based on this, he suspected an inside leak at the agency level.
The Final Email
On May 7, Rajat and Satish decided to send an email to the National Testing Agency. A local administrative officer assisted them in drafting the message.
“I know many of my fellow teachers, other coaching centres, even the students would hate us for making this complaint. But I think it was the right thing to do to save young meritorious students,” Rajat said.
Rajat sent the email from his account using Satish's name. “I am further in possession of copies/photos of the PDFs, screenshots/photos showing the time and receipt of the files on the mobile device, and comparative material showing similarity between the leaked PDFs and the actual examination questions,” an excerpt of the email read.
So far, nine people have been arrested across five states. They include Mandhare, Kulkarni, Waghmare, Dhananjay Lokhanda, Shubham Khairnar, Mangilal Biwal alias Mangilal Khatik, Vikas Biwal, Dinesh Biwal, and Yash Yadav.