Delhi court takes cognisance of CBI charge sheet in NEET paper leak case

A Delhi court has taken cognisance of the CBI’s charge sheet in the NEET paper leak case involving 13 accused, with hearings on charges set to begin August 13. The court criticised media outlets for publishing witness names, some of whom may be minors.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday took cognisance of the CBI’s charge sheet in the NEET paper leak case and is likely to begin hearing the arguments on the charges from August 13.

The CBI recently submitted its final report before the designated fast-track court dealing with “criminal cases arising from paper leaks as well as the use of other unfair means in public examinations”.

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Special Judge Ajay Gupta took cognisance of the agency’s final report against 13 accused.

The court is likely to begin hearing the arguments on charges from Thursday.

During the proceedings, the agency informed the court that some witnesses whose names are being published in the media could even be minors, and portions of the charge sheet are continuously being published in newspapers.

The court expressed displeasure over the media publishing the names of witnesses in the case.

It said, “This is very shocking… Whatever has not yet been stated in court and is currently part of the charge sheet… All of that being made public in the media is extremely shocking.

It said that a responsible media should refrain from doing such things.

Three National Testing Agency (NTA) subject experts – P V Kulkarni for chemistry, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar for physics and Manisha Gurunath Mandhare for botany and zoology – were the primary sources of the NEET paper leak, according to the CBI’s charge sheet.

According to the charge sheet, the agency began its crackdown on May 13, with the first set of arrests of Mangilal, Dinesh and Vikas Biwal in Rajasthan, whose mobile phones contained leaked PDFs received via Telegram on April 29.

On the same day, the agency arrested Yash Yadav in Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar in Nashik.

Another key arrest on May 13 was Dhananjay Lokhande in Pune, who allegedly attempted to destroy his phone to clear evidence before being apprehended.

Manisha Sanjay Waghmare was arrested in Pune the next day. The final report said that she was “one of the prime conspirators in the leakage and dissemination of NEET UG 2026 questions for monetary consideration” and “acted as the link between candidates and the subject experts”.

After interrogating them, the agency arrested the alleged mastermind, P V Kulkarni, on May 15 from Latur, followed by Manisha Mandhare from Pune on May 16.

Shivraj Motegaonkar, the founder of a coaching centre in Latur, was picked up on May 17.

The final arrests in this were of Manisha Sanjay Havaldar on May 22 from Latur, and Tejas Shah along with Dr Manoj Shirure from Pune and Latur respectively on May 26.

The charge sheet said that the conspiracy was unearthed through forensic imaging of mobile devices, which recovered deleted WhatsApp chats and PDF documents containing the leaked questions.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, is conducted by the NTA for medical aspirants. On May 12, the NTA cancelled the NEET-UG held on May 3 for admissions in medical courses amid allegations of paper leak. A re-examination was conducted on June 21.

Dharmendra Pradhan later resigned as education minister over the NEET paper leak row following protests.