The CBI just made a HUGE play. Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, a senior Botany teacher from Pune has been arrested. A Delhi court sent her straight to CBI custody for 14 days on Sunday. The fee is high. She is considered to be among the top masterminds of the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, investigators say.
This was no ordinary job. Mandhare wasn’t any kind of private tutor making a bit of extra money. In fact, the National Testing Agency appointed her as an expert panelist. Think about that. This position enabled her to have direct access to Botany and Zoology question papers much earlier than the exam date. CBI alleges that she swapped this inside access for cash. She is said to have given the Biology section to a few students who promised to pay a lot of money for assured admission to the medical course.
What a great idea that is!This is a wonderful idea!
The agency gives the following explanation of the racket. In April 2026, Mandhare joined forces with a local consultant, Manisha Waghmare. Waghmare was picked up by cops earlier this week. Together, they recruited students who sought an easy way to pass the difficult medical entrance exam.
Mandhare taught special coaching classes at her home in Pune. She was said to have read out certain questions on Biology in these private lessons. She told the students that she would like them to record them in their books. She instructed them to fill in the answers on their books. It was a push feeding. Those were the exact same questions that were there on the paper during the actual May 3rd NEET exam. This test was canceled due to the cheating.
However, she wasn’t working alone. The CBI alleges that she had been in connivance with a Professor of Chemistry, P.V. Kulkarni. He is believed to be the centre of this entire thing and was arrested just before her. There was another guy, Shubham as well, in the chain. He is said to have shifted the leaked material from one region to the other in order to make profits. There are simultaneous raids going on throughout the country at this time. The CBI raided six homes and picked up the laptop computers, bank statements and several mobile phones over the weekend. They must determine the amount of money that was exchanged.
Doctors Take the Fight to Court
The medical fraternity is becoming impatient while the CBI is picking track of the money and the middlemen. A petition has just been filed with the Supreme Court. It requires a fundamental change of the way medical exams are dealt with in this country.
Dr. Dhruv Chauhan filed the plea. He is the National Spokesperson of the Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors Network. Together they were joined by a social activist named Harisharan Devgan. They are appealing to the Chief Justice of India to raise suo motu the issue of the ongoing leaks. They hope that the court will consider the impersonation scams, and the utter failure of the existing testing system. Lakh of students from the middle class and poor family studying for years to clear NEET. The petition states that it removes a sense of merit from the purchase of the same paper by the rich kids. It ruins careers. It ruins lives.
Pointing Fingers at the NTA
The wrath of the angry is all for the National Testing Agency. The plea is unabashed. It says there is a complete institutional breakdown in NTA.
It isn’t the first occurrence of such a thing. The petitioners brought up a long history of cheating rackets. They discussed cyber failures and administrative screw-ups that dated back years, as well as solver gangs. They spoke about the Vyapam scam ecosystem. They raised issues regarding the controversy in the previous NEET and JEE exams. The argument is simple. The NTA has been unsuccessful numerous times. Even after court orders, experts’ committees and police investigations, the same leaks are occurring from year to year.
They had brought to the court’s notice that the government had already acknowledged in Parliament back in 2025 that it had to file multiple charge sheets against dozens of persons related to earlier paper theft cases. But now in 2026, we ourselves have the same situation. The petitioners allege these are no longer “accidental mistakes”. They recognize that the current agency simply cannot solve the problem all on their own.
The push for Real Accountability.
Now what is the doctors’ agenda? They wish that the NTA would be abolished. The petition calls for its complete replacement by the government. They are seeking a new National Examination Authority. However, they want it to be constructed entirely differently from scratch.
It’s crucial that the new body be held legally responsible. The doctors are demanding Justice to monitor the officials. They also say that they want high tech security measures which the NTA does not seem to have. The plea lists with demands. They would like to have digital paper transmitted in an encrypted format, so that no human hand could reach the papers prior to the beginning of the examination. They also wish that biometric verification measures should be put in place at the gates to prevent fake candidates from registering in the name of another.
But they are seeking a court-ordered investigation in the interim. They would like it to be taken up directly under the judges by the CBI or a Special Investigation Team. They desire expedient court proceedings for all of the individuals involved. That means the owners of the coaching centers, middlemen, dishonest teachers and any government officials who may have turned a blind eye to this.
The investigation widens out.Investigation is broadened out.
It’s sure getting hot down here. The activities of the CBI are progressing on well-tracks. Several other suspects were arrested in various states before they apprehended the Pune botany teacher. The net is bigger and bigger each day.
They brought an Ayurveda doctor Dhananjay Lokhande from Ahilyanagar. They also arrested five people from Rajasthan, Haryana, and Maharashtra. All of Mangilal Biwal, Yash Yadav, and Shubham Khairnar have been arrested. The “guess papers” made with the leaked originals have been sold for Rs 25,000 to Rs two lakh, investigators said. Before anyone could prevent it, the material was disseminated in various social media apps such as Telegram and WhatsApp in states like Bihar, Telangana and Kerala.
The Delhi court has remanded the suspects for interrogation between seven and 14 days. The CBI is now working on reconstructing the whole network. They are sifting through the confiscated telephones and computer, determining who purchased the papers, and who else might have helped sell them all over the country.
