New Delhi, May 14 A Delhi court on Thursday sent five accused in the alleged NEET paper leak case to seven-day police custody, saying the allegations revealed the role of an "organised gang" involved in leaking and circulating confidential examination papers for monetary gain.
Special Judge Ajay Gupta allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation's plea seeking custodial interrogation of Yash Yadav, Mangilal Khatik, Vikash Biwal, Dinesh Biwal, and Shubham Madhukar Khairnar for seven days.
In an order, the court said, "There is a larger conspiracy angle present in this case and the investigation is at its very nascent stage and the custody of the accused persons has been sought in order to unearth the entire conspiracy as well as arrest all the active members of this organized paper leak gang and also for the recovery of all the relevant incriminating material."
The judge said the allegations reflected a wider conspiracy and custodial interrogation was necessary to ascertain the source of the leak and identify other persons involved.
"It has been submitted that the NEET 2026 exam was conducted on May 3, 2026 however, allegedly, prior to the scheduled date of the exam, the question paper which was containing the substantial number of same questions (which also appeared in NEET Exam 2026), was leaked and circulated in an organized manner for monetary gain," the court said.
According to the CBI, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) conducted on May 3 was allegedly compromised after confidential question papers were circulated in PDF form through WhatsApp before the examination.
Representing the CBI, the Special Public Prosecutor Neetu Singh submitted that accused Shubham Khairnar allegedly procured the leaked paper from a person in Pune, who had sourced it through a contact in the National Testing Agency (NTA), and facilitated its transmission to co-accused Yash Yadav.
The CBI alleged Yadav subsequently entered into a deal worth Rs 10 lakh with accused Mangilal Khatik and the leaked material was distributed among candidates and others appearing in the examination.
Seeking custody, the agency argued that several incriminating chats had been deleted and mobile phones seized from the accused required forensic examination.
"Their custody is required to unearth the larger conspiracy and to identify the officials of NTA and other departments, who were involved in the leakage of NEET UG 2026 paper before the examination," SPP Singh submitted before the court.
Opposing the custody of all five accused, the defence counsel contended that the arrests were illegal and that documentary evidence had already been collected.
