Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi

New Delhi, Jul 16: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has informed a special court that a coaching centre owner from Maharashtra's Latur allegedly paid Rs 5 lakh to obtain leaked chemistry questions ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 examination.

In its response to the bail plea filed by accused Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, the CBI alleged that he procured the questions as part of a conspiracy involving other accused persons.

According to the agency, Motegaonkar received the leaked questions from co-accused P. V. Kulkarni, who was a member of the National Testing Agency (NTA) panel responsible for preparing the NEET question paper. The CBI further claimed that Motegaonkar's son attended Kulkarni's coaching classes, where the leaked chemistry questions were allegedly shared.

The agency stated that Motegaonkar prepared handwritten notes based on the questions provided during the tutorial classes.

The CBI told the court that it recovered Motegaonkar's mobile phone containing 36 images, including five duplicates, featuring 132 handwritten chemistry questions. Of these, 111 questions allegedly matched those in the NTA's master question sets prepared for NEET-UG 2026.

According to the investigation, the handwritten notes were allegedly prepared by Motegaonkar. Metadata analysis of the images reportedly showed they were captured nearly 10 days before the May 3 NEET-UG examination.

The CBI also informed the court that the cash allegedly paid for obtaining the leaked questions was recovered during the investigation at the instance of co-accused Manoj Bhagwanrao Shirure.

So far, the agency has arrested 13 people in connection with the case, all of whom are currently in judicial custody.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the NEET-UG examination conducted on May 3 after allegations of a paper leak surfaced. A re-examination was subsequently held on June 21.