NEET UG paper leak case: Court grants 10-day custody of Waghmare, Kulkarni to CBI

The CBI also said that Waghmare is in Conspiracy with other Accused and public servants associated with the NTA.

Kulkarni was in contact with Manisha Waghmare through Manisha Mandhare. The accsued are members of an organised paper leak gang.

As per CBI, accused Manisha Waghmare, in conspiracy with other accused persons and with the public servant associated with NTA had received the question paper and answers of NEET (UG) Exam 2026 prior to the examination on April 27 and she provided the same to several persons including accused Dhananjay against monetary benefits. she has also destroyed the leaked question paper after the NEET 2026 was conducted, the CBI stated.

The CBI said that Prahalad Kulkarni is a retired teacher of Chemistry who distributed the exam paper to various people through Manisha Waghmare. She gave the examination paper to Dhananjay Lokhande of Pune and was in contact with him. They are from Pune, Maharashtra.

The CBI had sought their custody for days to investigate the larger Conspiracy and to arrest other accused involved in the leakage of the exam paper.

CBI sought custody of the accused to unearth a larger Conspiracy involved in the paper leak.

The CBI stated that it wanted "to identify locations where questions were revealed to certain candidates".

Special Judge (CBI) Ajay Gupta granted 10 days' custody of Manisha Waghmare and Prahalad Kulkarni to the CBI to investigate the case.

While granting remand, the court noted, as per record, both these accused persons have not disclosed the names of all the persons who are involved in circulation of the leaked question paper.

The court also noted that, allegedly, there is a larger conspiracy angle present in this case and as per CBI, several other accused persons who are the active members of this syndicate are yet to be identified and arrested and for this purpose, the custodial interrogation of these accused persons is sought for a substantial number of days. As per CBI, they are also required to be taken to Pune.

Deputy SP Pawan Kumar Kaushik produced the accused before the court.

CBI Prosecutors Neetu Singh and V K Pathak sought 14 days' custody of the accused, submitting that Dhananjay had collected Manisha Waghmare. Prahalad Kulkarni provided the NEET UG paper through Manisha Waghmare, the CBI said.

The CBI further submitted that the accused may be required to be taken to other states to investigate the larger conspiracy involved in the NEET UG exam paper leak.

Counsel for the accused, Manisha Waghmare, said that the custody is illegal. He was kept in illegal custody by the Pune police on the instructions of the CBI.

It was also submitted that Manisha has been arrested based on the disclosure statement of Dhananjay Lokhande.

The counsel for Manisha said that a 14-day custody was unnecessary, stating that she has already been in custody since Tuesday and that 2-3 days would be sufficient for interrogation.

Counsel for Prahalad Kulkarni submitted that the NTA had engaged several experts to prepare the examination paper. He added that Kulkarni had also submitted a question paper to the NTA, which was responsible for selecting the final exam set. The counsel stated that Kulkarni was not aware whether his paper was selected by the NTA, and also pointed out that no NTA official has been arrested so far.

The CBI counsel said that there is evidence to show that Prahalad Kulkarni distributed the exam paper to various people through Manisha Waghmare.

On Friday, the court remanded Dhananjay Lokhande for 6 days of CBI custody in the NEET UG exam paper leak case, as the agency got the remand to identify and arrest NTA officials involved in the leak and probe the larger conspiracy.

While seeking remand of Lokhande, the CBI had said that the accused Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande, who is known to Shubham, collected NEET examination, 2026 material from co-accused Manisha Waghmare, who is a resident of Pune.

The CBI had further said that Lokhande, after receiving the said NEET examination paper, 2026, further transmitted it to the accused Shubham Madhukar Khairnar. On April 24, Yash Yadav received PDF files of leaked question papers from Subham Madhukar Khairnar through Telegram.

The CBI had also said that police custody of Lokhande was required to recover the digital devices and digital evidence and financial trail, and also to identify the officials of NTA involved in the leakage of paper and to unearth the larger conspiracy.

The other five accsued are also in a seven-day CBI custody. All Accused will be produced before the court on May 22.

While seeking police custody of Lokhande, the CBI Prosecutor had submitted that the accused was arrested on May 13 in Ahilya Nagar, Maharashtra, and his two-day transit remand was obtained from the court of Ahmednagar on the same day, around 7.00 pm. Transit remand was granted by the local court.

As per the investigation conducted by CBI, Lokhande, known to the accused Shubham, collected the NEET examination 2026 material from co-accused Manisha Waghmare, a resident of Pune and after receiving the NEET examination paper 2026, he further transmitted the same to accused Shubham Madhukar Khairnar.

During the investigation, it has also come to light that, in regard to the leaked question paper circulation, there have been banking transactions of approximately Rs 6 Lac between him and his relative and co-accused, Shubham Madhukar Khairnar. Further, in this regard, certain incriminating material, i.e. bank statements, electronic evidence, etc., has also been collected during the investigation.

The CBI Prosecutor had said that it has come to light that the accused Shubham Madhukar Khairnar had obtained the said paper from the accused Lokhande, who had obtained the same from the co-accused Manisha Waghmare.

Allegedly, accused Shubham Khairnar had obtained the said leaked question paper for the purpose of selling the same for monetary gain and subsequently, he facilitated accused Yash Yadav for distribution of leaked NEET (UG) 2026 question paper and accordingly, on April 29, accused Yash Yadav got the pdf files of the NEET question papers through telegram which pdf files containing the question paper of Physics, Chemistry and Biology have already been recovered. (ANI)