From Nashik press to Sikar coaching hub- Probe traces NEET 2026 'guess paper' trail
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is now focusing its probe into the NEET 2026 paper leak case on Sikar, which is fast emerging as the 'new Kota' of Rajasthan.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported how the NEET paper leak resulted in the cancellation of the NEET UG 2026 exam held on May 3 for more than 22 lakh candidates.
While an investigation by the Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group (SOG) has pointed to a complex trail leading to Nashik, another parallel probe by the Nashik Police has narrowed down Sikar as the centre of the scam.
The question papers for the exam were reportedly printed in Nashik. According to the sources at Nashik Police, a BAMS student allegedly received the paper from another student based in Pune through the Telegram app. Allegedly, this student, bought the guess paper for Rs 10 lakh and later sold it for Rs 15 lakh to a Haryana-based buyer.
Trail of Paper Leak:
As per the latest media report by India Today, Rajasthan Police sources revealed that initially, the investigators believed that the paper had leaked directly from the printing press in Nashik.
According to sources, a person associated with the printing press very likely passed the paper into a "chain network" through which the paper reached a doctor from Gurugram, Haryana. Following this, allegedly, a man from Jaipur's Jamwa Ramgarh purchased the paper from the concerned doctor.
The Daily has reported that, consequently, from Jamwa Ramgarh, the paper reached a person in Sikar, who works as an MBBS counselling agent outside major coaching institutes in Sikar. Sources said that the NEET paper was distributed through a one-to-one network across the country and reached the coaching centres in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Kerala and Uttarakhand. As per the sources, the CBI has already detained the person linked to the Nashik printing press.
According to investigating officials, the paper in question was circulated as a "guess paper", which generally include practice questions prepared by teachers based on the trends of question papers in the previous years.
It has come to light that the leaked paper had been circulating for nearly 15 days before the exam date and it was sold to medical aspirants for any amount ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 28 lakh. Reportedly, a student from Nagpur, who arrived in Sikar only four days before the exam, spent Rs 28 lakh for the paper. When the student was questioned, he claimed receiving a call from Delhi saying that the "paper had arrived".
How Police Exposed the Network?
Generally, the paper mafia ensures that the leaked paper gets circulated with utmost secrecy. However, the network was busted this time due to the greed for money.
The Sikar-based MBBS counselling agent had reportedly been selling the paper for Rs 30,000 to one of his aides, who is a Sikar-based student pursuing MBBS in Kerala. The day before the NEET exam, the student sent the guess paper to his father, who operates a PG in Sikar.
The student mentioned in the message addressed to his father, "Papa, a friend from Sikar sent this to me. Please give it to the girls in your hostel. This is what will come in tomorrow's exam."
According to the investigators, his father did not give it much thought and circulated it among the girls staying at the hostel. After the exam was over, the PG operator asked a teacher at a Coaching institute to verify how many questions actually appeared in the exam.
The NEET exam has a total of 180 questions, and each question carries four marks. The PG operator was shocked to find that all 90 Biology questions and all 45 Chemistry questions in the NEET exam were found in the "guess paper", which contained a total of 281 questions. In fact, according to investigators, the 45 Chemistry questions in the "guess paper" were in the same sequence as the actual NEET paper, and not even commas or full stops had been changed.
WhatsApp Tag Indicated "Forwarded Many Times":
The Indian Express has reported that the police unravelled the suspected leak in the NEET 2026 paper with an automated fineprint on a WhatsApp message: "Forwarded many times".
When investigators followed the trail of the "guess paper", they stumbled upon this WhatsApp message, which indicated that the leak was widespread in nature.
Crackdown on the Network:
When the hostel operator approached the Udyog Nagar police station to inform them about this, allegedly, the police dismissed him, asking him not to spread rumours; then he informed the investigators. Thereafter, he shared the information with NTA, which is in charge of conducting the NEET exam.
Following this, NTA passed the information to the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which, in turn, alerted the Rajasthan Police. Thereafter, the Rajasthan SOG launched a probe and initially detained around 15 people, including the PG operator.
Thereafter, the SOG expanded the raids in Dehradun and Jhunjhunu, detaining more suspects. Eventually, the MBBS counsellor from Sikar was also detained.
For now, the investigating officials have zeroed in their investigation on Sikar and Jaipur, and they suspect that Sikar is likely to have become a new hub for paper-leak networks.
Reportedly, Sikar is rapidly emerging as one of the largest coaching centre hubs in India. While admissions are declining in Kota, a major JEE-NEET coaching hub, a large number of students are now shifting towards Sikar. The probe revealed that while the paper may have leaked in Jaipur initially, it circulated widely in Sikar.
Indian Express has reported that it is the view of the investigating officials that the 'guess paper' may have been printed too. This could make tracking the leak exponentially more difficult.
The Daily has reported that the owner of the PG owner in Sikar, who complained to the police, is also under the scanner for being associated with the leak. It is suspected that the PG Owner may have complained to avoid arrest once the leak became widespread,
However, police officers in Jaipur said that several issues, including the exact trail of the leak or where the 'guess paper' originated, are yet to be "conclusively established."
Commenting on the matter, the Additional Director General of Police, SOG, had earlier said that the 'guess paper' had more than 400 questions and among them 120 appeared in the test.
He said, "And this guess paper was with students’ weeks before the examination, as far back as a month." Further mentioning that the inquiry so far has not revealed where the question paper originated from, he added that it has been found on WhatsApp in the mobile phones of the students appearing in the test. "It is a .pdf file of about 150 pages with over 400 questions. So, we are moving step by step – it is a laborious and painful process. All (SOG) officers are involved in this," he said.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot said that the State Government is allegedly trying to cover up the case for two weeks. "The cancellation of the NEET (UG) entrance exam indicates that there was large-scale malpractice in this paper. The BJP government in Rajasthan deliberately tried to cover it up for two weeks and tampered with the future of the youth. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has taken a bold decision in the interest of the youth by cancelling the exam and handing over the investigation to the CBI," he said.
"The BJP government in Rajasthan had previously concealed the OMR sheet scam in the Employee Selection Board (recruitment exam) to avoid tarnishing the government’s image. Due to weak prosecution, the accused in that case were even granted bail. Similarly, an attempt was made to hide information about the NEET (UG) exam leak, and no FIR was even filed. Now the truth has come out, and the true face of the BJP government has been exposed," Gehlot added.
Also Read: NEET 2026 Paper Leak Row: Doctors’ Body Urges PM Modi to Dissolve NTA, NMC
