New Delhi: The NEET-UG 2026 exam, which was supposed to be a fair shot for over 22 lakh medical aspirants, has instead turned into a nightmare of systemic
failure. The prestigious exam, which was scheduled for May 3, has now blown up into a massive scandal leading the National Testing Agency (NTA) to cancel the test following intense protests.
At the heart of the probe is Sikar, which is Rajasthan’s rising coaching hub, but now the primary focus of the CBI probe and the Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group (SOG).
The scale at which the paper is leaked is staggering. Investigators have traced a digital trail leading to a “private mafia” WhatsApp group found on seized mobile phones. This group, specifically created to upload leaked papers, reportedly had around 400 members. It served as a digital marketplace where the future of honest students was auctioned off to the highest bidder.
From printing press to WhatsApp group
The leak didn’t happen by accident; in fact, it was a calculated breach. As per the sources, the paper was leaked directly from the printing press in Nashik. A person linked to the press allegedly passed it to a “chain network” that moved through a doctor in Gurugram to a middleman in Jaipur named Khatik. From there, it reached Rakesh Kumar Mandawaria in Sikar, an MBBS counselling agent who used his proximity to coaching institutes to distribute the paper.
Initially, the paper was circulated under the guise of a “guess paper”, marking a common set of practice questions. This allowed the mafia to move the content with some level of plausible deniability. However, the accuracy was chilling as out of the 281 questions in the leaked set, every single one of the 90 Biology questions and 45 Chemistry questions appeared in the actualNEET exam. Even the sequence, commas and full stops were identical.
How the network got busted?
The price of these leaked papers ranged from Rs 30,000 to as high as Rs 28 lakh. One student from Nagaur reportedly paid Rs 28 lakh just four days before the exam after getting a tip-off from Delhi.
However, the network ultimately collapsed because of a lack of discretion. Rakesh sold the paper to an MBBS student in Kerala, who then sent it to his father, a PG hostel operator in Sikar.
The student’s message was blunt, “Papa, a friend sent this. Give it to the girls in the hostel. This is what will come in tomorrow’s exam.” The hostel operator shared it widely and when he later realised the paper was a 100% match, he grew concerned and approached the police.
Though initially dismissed by local authorities as a “rumour,” the NTA and Intelligence Bureau eventually stepped in, leading to the current CBI crackdown.
