111 handwritten questions found with Latur's coaching centre owner matched official NEET 2026 paper, CBI tells court

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has informed a Delhi court that 111 handwritten questions recovered from the mobile phone of a coaching institute owner in Maharashtra matched the official master question sets prepared by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for the cancelled NEET UG 2026 examination.

The claims were made by the CBI while opposing the bail pleas of the owner of the coaching centre in Latur, who also has a YouTube channel with 1.68 lakh subscribers, and the paediatrician, who have been arrested in connection with the alleged NEET UG 2026 paper leak case.

According to the agency, investigators recovered 36 images from the accused Samsung Fold 7 mobile phone during a search. Of these, five were duplicate images, while the remaining contained 132 handwritten Chemistry questions. The image metadata showed they were captured on April 23, 2026, around 10 days before the original NEET UG examination held on May 3.

Also read- No NTA official involved in NEET 2026 paper leak: CBI

The CBI told the court that about 111 of these handwritten questions matched questions from the NTA's master question sets, suggesting that the questions were available before the examination.

As per The Indian Express media report, the agency alleged that the owner received the leaked questions on April 23 at a Hospital in Latur, owned by the paediatrician. The questions were allegedly leaked by NTA panel member and translator (the accused chemistry lecturer).

The owner was arrested on May 17, while the doctor was taken into custody on May 26. Both are currently lodged in Tihar Jail.

The NEET UG 2026 exam was conducted on May 3 by the National Testing Agency and was held from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM in pen-and-paper mode. Over 22.7 lakh aspirants appeared for the examination this year. It took place across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad, covering over 5,400 centres.

However, on May 12, 2026, the NTA declared the examination held on May 3 cancelled and subsequently announced a re-examination on June 21, 2026.

This came in the backdrop of the probe by the Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group, which reportedly found a “guess paper” containing more than 100 questions similar to those asked in the NEET UG examination. The question paper series under scrutiny has been described as a “guess paper” which reportedly contained around 410 questions. Out of these, nearly 120 questions are alleged to have appeared in the Biology and Chemistry sections of the examination.

In the aftermath of the exam cancellation, protests were held, with aspirants and members of the medical fraternity condemning NTA and the Education Ministry for the failure.

Due to the alleged controversy, the central government decided to refer the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation for a comprehensive inquiry into the allegations. Based on the Centre's direction, the CBI registered an FIR in the case and so far arrested 13 people.

Also read- NEET 2026 paper leak accused seeks bail to appear for re-exam, court seeks CBI response