New Delhi: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a supplementary chargesheet against an accused in the NEET paper leak case before a Delhi court Wednesday.
Special Judge Ajay Gupta directed that a copy of the supplementary chargesheet be supplied to the counsel of the 14th accused, Sheshrav Bajrang Suryawanshi alias Raj Suryawanshi, and posted the matter for further proceedings on Thursday.
The agency has alleged that Suryawanshi, a resident of Nanded in Maharashtra who was arrested on September 2, is a close associate of co-accused Shubham Khairnar.
According to the supplementary chargesheet, Suryawanshi, acting in collusion with Khairnar, provided the medical entrance examination paper to various candidates and collected money from their families.
CBI officials said Suryawanshi allegedly asked the candidates to gather at a place in Nanded, where they were provided with the paper. He kept their original documents like educational certificates and identity cards to ensure that they made the payment after the examination.
On August 12, 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” took cognisance of the CBI’s chargesheet against 13 other accused.
According to the earlier chargesheet, the agency began its crackdown on May 13, with the first set of arrests of Mangilal, Dinesh and Vikas Biwal in Rajasthan. Their 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 made on May 13 was that of Dhananjay Lokhande in Pune. He allegedly attempted to destroy his phone to clear evidence before being apprehended.
Manisha Sanjay Waghmare was arrested in Pune the next day. According to the final report filed earlier, Waghmare 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, from Latur on May 15, 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 last arrests in this case were of Manisha Sanjay Havaldar from Latur on May 22, Tejas Shah from Pune and Dr Manoj Shirure from Latur, both on May 26.
The CBI has claimed 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 National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to medical courses.
On May 12, the NTA cancelled the exam held on May 3 amid paper leak allegations. A re-examination was conducted on June 21.
The NEET paper leak snowballed into a major political issue, triggering a massive protest that was led by the Cockroach Janta Party. The protest culminated in the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union education minister.
The CBI swung into action after registering the FIR, raiding 92 locations in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and other states.
During its two-month-long probe, the agency unearthed the conspiracy from the source of the leak to the beneficiary candidates, leading to the “identification of the chain”.
PTI
