New Delhi: In a major development, the CBI has made startling revelations before a Delhi court on Thursday, stating that the NEET-UG 2026 question paper leak can be traced to the internal source within the National Testing Agency (NTA). The statement was made in a remand hearing for five people who had been arrested in connection with the case, marking it as the first time NTA was officially blamed for an insider role in the breach.
Special Judge Ajay Kumar Gupta of the Rouse Avenue Courts has noted this revelation. As per the claim, an intricate channel was involved in leaking the paper, which states that it was first leaked by an unknown “NTA source” to another person based in Pune.
Subsequently, it was forwarded by the latter to Shubham Khairnar, a 30-year-old medical student hailing from Nashik.
Trajectory of the Leaked Paper
According to investigations carried out by the authorities, the leak took place days before the May 3 test. As alleged, Khairnar shared the pdf file of the 500-600 questions—180 of which were found to be “precisely identical”—with another person in Gurugram named Yash Yadav via Telegram.
The CBI discovered that the paper had been sold for about ₹10 lakh, with copies being printed and distributed among selected candidates in Rajasthan and Haryana. As observed by the CBI, the leaking was done with an objective to enable the students to score about 600 marks, which would be enough to gain admission to government medical colleges.
Systematic Leak and Arrest
The court ordered the CBI to hold the five main suspects, including Khairnar and Yadav, for seven days to unearth the conspiracy and identify the exact NTA officers involved.
“The investigation will zero-in on the process through which the question paper left NTA’s control,” the CBI official said.
The NEET-UG 2026 test, attended by 2.27 million students, was suspended on May 12 when the center agencies determined the breach.
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