NEET 2026 paper leak: How a Pune tea stall owner allegedly offered students question paper for Rs 4.5 lakh
New Delhi: At a time when the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case has yet to subside, information came to light about how the alleged leak began, with two medical aspirants reportedly being offered access to the question paper for Rs 4.5 lakh at a tea stall outside their coaching centre in Pune.
In April this year, the two aspirants were sitting at a tea stall in Pune, discussing their apprehensions about the upcoming examination when the owner allegedly approached them. He told them that a friend of his, whom he described as a doctor, could arrange the question paper for the examination for Rs 4.5 lakh.
The owner is the 14th accused chargesheeted in the NEET UG 2026 question paper leak case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested him on September 2 and filed a chargesheet against him earlier this week over his alleged links with a career counsellor arrested in Nashik, Maharashtra, in May. He was sent to judicial custody after his three-day remand with the probe agency ended.
After his arrest, the agency found out that the accused took at least 10 students to a house in Panchak village in Nashik, where they were allegedly provided with the leaked questions and collected their original documents and educational certificates as security for payment.
NEET 2026 controversy
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.
How did the leak happen?
An Indian Express source said that after the deal was struck, the accused took the two aspirants to the house on April 28. Eight other students were also present there. The students were allegedly given the questions for the NEET-UG examination scheduled for May 3 and studied them over the next three to four days.
The students were allowed to leave the house on May 2 and were instructed to return the papers containing the questions. However, one of the students allegedly scanned all the questions on his mobile phone before handing back the papers.
“After the examination, the accused approached one of the students and asked him to pay Rs 3 lakh in cash at his tea shop. The student’s mother arranged the money after mortgaging 35.8 grams of gold jewellery and handed it (the cash) over to him. He also asked another student for money, but that student kept buying time and did not pay anything,” the source said.
During the investigation, the CBI scanned the accused's phone and found a photograph of a girl, taken on April 30, holding photocopies of the leaked questions. It also traced how Khairnar, the career counsellor, arranged a rented accommodation for the students.
As per information from the CBI, the Nashik-based career counsellor had first met an individual who runs an educational consultancy firm in Nanded in 2018. In mid-April this year, the counsellor allegedly approached the education consultancy firm owner and asked him to arrange a place where some students could prepare for their final examination for at least four days. He reportedly offered Rs 75,000 for the accommodation.
Indian Express reported that during their conversation, the counsellor told the education consultancy firm owner that he had a guess paper for NEET-UG 2026. He then approached a friend who runs a small grocery store and had a ground-floor unit at Panchak village that was vacant. He paid Rs 15,000 as an advance and shared the counsellor's phone number with the grocery store owner.
The CBI found that the career counsellor sent several PDF files containing questions to the education consultancy firm owner and asked him to get them printed. The files reportedly contained more than 550 questions from Biology and Chemistry. The education consultancy firm owner then arranged eight sets of printouts from a photocopy shop.
"He introduced himself to all the students as a doctor and handed them the question papers. The shopkeeper owner was asked to take photographs of the students holding the papers. The education consultancy firm owner later left the premises, and the next day he again received a PDF file of a Physics question paper and repeated the same exercise," the source added.
