New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday extended till July 11 the judicial custody of 10 accused in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The accused were produced before the Rouse Avenue Court through video conferencing on the expiry of their earlier judicial custody.
The court extended the judicial custody of Yash Yadav, Mangilal Biwal, Dinesh Biwal, Vikas Biwal, Dhananjay Lokhande, Tejas Harshad Shah, Shubham Khairnar, Manisha Waghmare, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar and Dr Manoj Shirure till July 11.
Earlier, on June 15, the Rouse Avenue Court had extended the judicial custody of the 10 accused till June 29. The court had also permitted the CBI to interrogate accused Shubham Khairnar, Manisha Waghmare and Dhananjay Lokhande inside jail on June 17, 18 and 19, respectively, for one hour each as part of the ongoing investigation.
The CBI has so far arrested 13 accused in the case and is investigating an alleged network involved in procuring and circulating NEET-UG question papers ahead of the examination.
According to the probe agency, Latur-based doctor Manoj Shirure played a key role in facilitating three students, including the son of an accused coaching centre owner, in obtaining Chemistry questions from alleged kingpin P.V. Kulkarni before the examination.
Tejas Harshad Shah, a Physics faculty member at Pune-based Abhang Prabhu Medical Academy (APMA), is alleged to have received leaked Physics questions from co-accused Manisha Sanjay Havaldar.
The CBI has further alleged that Pune-based education consultant Manisha Waghmare acted as an intermediary in mobilising students who allegedly paid lakhs of rupees to attend special coaching sessions where questions that later appeared in the NEET-UG 2026 examination were dictated and discussed.
According to the probe agency, Waghmare facilitated prospective candidates for special coaching classes conducted by NTA-appointed senior Botany teacher Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, who is suspected to be the co-mastermind behind the Biology paper leak, while Chemistry professor P.V. Kulkarni has been identified as the alleged kingpin of the paper leak network.
The CBI registered the case on May 12 based on a written complaint received from the Department of Higher Education under the Union Ministry of Education.
Following registration of the FIR, special teams were constituted and searches were carried out at multiple locations across the country. Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA) successfully conducted the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination on June 21 after the original examination was cancelled amid concerns over alleged irregularities.
More than 20 lakh medical aspirants appeared for the re-examination at 5,440 centres across India and 14 centres abroad.
Nearly 7 lakh personnel, including examination staff, police personnel, observers and administrative officials, were deployed to ensure the smooth conduct of the examination.
More than 95,000 examination rooms were monitored through over 1.38 lakh CCTV cameras, while over 51,000 signal jammers were installed to prevent electronic malpractice.
The re-examination was conducted under extensive security measures, including Aadhaar-based biometric verification, facial authentication, two-layer frisking, real-time surveillance and command-and-control centre monitoring, aimed at ensuring transparency and preserving the integrity of one of the country’s largest entrance examinations.
(IANS)
