NEET Paper Leak: Judicial Custody Of Kingpin PV Kulkarni, Coaching Director Extended Till July 8
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday extended till July 8 the judicial custody of two accused in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The accused P.V. Kulkarni and Shivaraj Motegaonkar were produced before the Rouse Avenue Court on the expiry of their earlier 14-day judicial custody.
The court directed that both accused remain in judicial custody till July 8.
According to the CBI, Kulkarni, a retired Chemistry professor from Maharashtra’s Latur, was the mastermind behind the alleged paper leak network.
The probe agency has claimed that he was associated with the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) question paper-setting process for several years and misused his access to leak examination content to selected candidates through special coaching sessions conducted in Pune.
Motegaonkar, the director of Latur-based RCC Coaching Institute, is alleged to have played a key role in the dissemination of the leaked paper.
Investigators claim that examination questions and their answers reached him nearly 10 days before the conduct of the NEET-UG 2026 examination.
According to the CBI, Motegaonkar allegedly procured the leaked paper through Kulkarni and co-accused Manisha Mandhare, who is suspected to have played a crucial role in the Biology paper leak.
The CBI had earlier arrested Motegaonkar, stating that he owned the RCC Coaching Institute, which operates nine branches with its main centre in Latur and prepares students for the NEET-UG examination.
The probe agency said searches conducted at the institute and Motegaonkar’s residence led to the recovery of a Chemistry question bank containing questions identical to those that appeared in the now-cancelled NEET-UG 2026 examination held on May 3.
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.
Earlier this month, the Rouse Avenue Court extended till June 29 the judicial custody of 10 other accused in the case, including Yash Yadav, Mangilal Biwal, Dinesh Biwal, Vikas Biwal, Dhananjay Lokhande, Tejas Harshad Shah, Shubham Khairnar, Manisha Waghmare, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar and Dr Manoj Shirure.
The court had also permitted the CBI to interrogate certain accused inside jail as part of its continuing investigation. The CBI has so far arrested 13 accused in connection with the alleged network involved in procuring and circulating NEET-UG question papers before the examination.
Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency successfully conducted the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination on June 21 after the original examination was cancelled amid concerns over irregularities.
More than 20 lakh medical aspirants appeared at 5,440 examination centres across India and 14 centres abroad. Authorities deployed nearly 7 lakh personnel, including examination staff, police officers, observers and administrative officials, to ensure the smooth conduct of the re-test.
Over 95,000 examination rooms were monitored through more than 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)
