The CBI on Friday arrested PV Kulkarni, the alleged mastermind in the NEET UG 2026 paper leak case. P.V., a resident of Latur. Kulkarni is a chemistry teacher in Pune. He was involved in the examination process on behalf of the National Testing Agency (NTA), due to which he had direct access to the question papers.
CBI alleges that the accused had given leaked questions and their answers to the students by running special coaching classes in Pune. During the investigation of the case, the agency also conducted raids at many places across the country, from where electronic devices and important documents were seized.
According to the investigating agency, till now seven accused have been arrested in this case. CBI is also currently investigating the big network related to the paper leak and the role of middlemen involved in it.
42 questions came in the exam from mock test
Meanwhile, investigation has also intensified in Latur, Maharashtra. Latur is considered a coaching hub, where students from all over the state come to study. Here, a parent of a student had complained that 42 questions of the mock test conducted by a private coaching institute were similar to the questions asked in the NEET exam.
After this, CBI has detained a retired teacher of a college in Latur. However, the agency has not yet made his identity public. Earlier, Latur police had already interrogated six people including coaching staff, counselors and students.
the exam will be held again
National Examination Agency i.e. NTA has announced the new date of NEET-UG. Now this examination will be held across the country on June 21. Earlier this examination was held on 3 May. However, it had come under question due to the fear of paper leak. Now its investigation has been handed over to CBI. Announcing the exam date, NTA said that it has decided to conduct the re-examination of NEET-UG-2026 on Sunday, June 21, 2026, after the permission of the Central Government. Candidates and parents are requested to rely only on the official channels of NTA.
It is noteworthy that NEET UG 2026 examination was held on May 3 in 551 cities of the country and 14 foreign centres. About 23 lakh students had registered for this examination. NTA had canceled the exam after allegations of paper leak came to light. The Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police had also claimed that around 120 questions from a “guess paper” circulated before the exam had appeared in the actual exam.