NEW DELHI: A seemingly innocuous WhatsApp message from a parent asking chemistry professor PV Kulkarni for his address to gift him a watch rang the first alarm-bells for CBI sleuths probing the NEET-UG paper leak. What followed was a scan of an access control app used in residential societies (Mygate) and analysis of a WhatsApp group named ‘Fifa world cup’, which helped the agency trace the students who bought papers and ultimately the question setters who leaked them.The chargesheet filed by CBI revealed that Mygate app logs confirmed the presence of students in the apartment of the arrested accused Kulkarni. The logs matched mobile logs, corroborating their location.Kulkarni was engaged as a subject expert (chemistry) by NTA for NEET-UG 2026 – the medical entrance exam being cancelled on May 3 due to a paper leak. The test was reconducted on June 21.Though sworn to secrecy, Kulkarni chose to share questions with students who paid to attend “special classes” he conducted in his apartment just before the exam, the agency said in the chargesheet.His greed put paid to measures that NTA had taken to plug vulnerabilities in the logistics chain that were exploited by an organised gang. The testing agency had not factored in the possibility of subversion by a subject expert.“Kulkarni and other accused paper setters would memorise or mark in a book the questions that were being set at NTA’s office, later note down those questions at a hotel, and then pass these on to other accused,” CBI said.The handwritten notes matched the leaked question papers. Kulkarni’s seized phone contained pre-exam leaked papers in circulation and contacts with candidates, parents and co-accused. The phone contained nine images of the chemistry question paper and answer slips matching NEET-UG papers.Kulkarni, CBI said, also created a Whatsapp group called “special class” on April 25. The money, in lieu of questions, was directly collected from parents of candidates by Kulkarni or sent through co-accused Manisha Waghmare, a beautician.Nine students attended Kulkarni’s classes between April 25 and 27, officials privy to investigations said. Besides, three candidates attended special classes in Latur. Eight students, who joined the WhatsApp group created by Kulkarni, and his scouts have confirmed to CBI that the leaked paper was shared with them.Kulkarni even made an attempt to get the physics paper for students, but it was leaked by another paper setter, Manisha Havaldar. She was on NTA’s panel to set the physics paper and also to translate the question paper from English to Marathi and vice versa. Despite an oath of confidentiality, she allegedly leaked physics questions to the mother of a candidate for Rs 25,000 at the insistence of another accused.
Trail Led CBI To Students And Question Setters
Eight days before the exam, Havaldar had handwritten notes of the leaked paper on her phone. She dictated the leaked paper to accused Tejas Shah for further circulation. On April 14, Shah, a member of physics faculty and chief operating officer of Abhang Prabhu Medical Academy, noted down the leaked questions dictated by Havaldar.The leaked papers also reached Rajasthan. Four days ahead of the test, 11 sets of leaked question papers were transported in a black Hyundai Verna to Jhunjhunu. The chargesheet details revealed that Mangilal Biwal and Dinesh Biwal – Sikar-based family at the core of the leak – were carrying printed material spanning the complete exam syllabus, across physics, chemistry and biology.
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One of the receivers, Amit, kept Class X and XII marksheets of candidates as security, and they were assured they would only need to pay if more than 150 questions matched the actual paper, CBI said.Another accused, Shivraj Motegaonkar, managing partner of RCC coaching centre, circulated leaked question papers to students, claiming these would be the “most expected” paper appearing in the exam. The night before the NEET-UG exam, a PDF file containing the question paper was leaked to 40-50 hostel students of RCC coaching students, sleuths said.On May 3, after the exam, students appeared in a video where they claimed questions predicted by Motegaonkar actually appeared in the test. The “RCC MOCK test question paper” was the leaked question paper, CBI has found.