NEW DELHI: A seemingly routine WhatsApp message from a parent to chemistry professor P.V. Kulkarni asking for his address to gift him a watch became an important lead for the CBI during its investigation into the NEET-UG paper leak.
The message prompted investigators to examine records from Mygate, an access-control app used by residential societies, as well as a WhatsApp group called “Fifa World Cup.” Together, these trails helped the agency identify students who had allegedly paid for leaked papers and trace the chain back to the question setters.
According to the CBI chargesheet, Mygate access logs established that several students had visited Kulkarni’s apartment. The records matched mobile-phone location data, providing additional corroboration.
Kulkarni had been engaged by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as a chemistry subject expert for NEET-UG 2026, the medical entrance examination that was cancelled on May 3 after the paper leak came to light. The exam was subsequently reconducted on June 21.
The CBI alleges that Kulkarni, despite being bound by confidentiality, shared questions with students who paid to attend “special classes” at his apartment shortly before the examination.
Investigators said this exposed a vulnerability that the NTA’s security measures had not adequately anticipated: the possibility that a subject expert involved in preparing the paper could himself leak questions.
According to the chargesheet, Kulkarni and other accused paper setters allegedly memorised or marked questions while they were being prepared at the NTA’s office. They later reproduced the questions at a hotel and passed them on to other members of the network.
The handwritten notes recovered during the investigation were found to correspond with questions in the leaked papers. Kulkarni’s seized phone also contained leaked question papers, contacts of candidates, parents and co-accused, as well as nine images of the chemistry paper and answer slips matching the NEET-UG examination.
The CBI said Kulkarni created a WhatsApp group named “special class” on April 25. Payments from parents were allegedly collected either directly by him or through co-accused Manisha Waghmare, a beautician.
Officials familiar with the investigation said nine students attended Kulkarni’s classes between April 25 and 27, while three others attended similar classes in Latur. Eight students who joined the WhatsApp group, along with Kulkarni’s alleged intermediaries, reportedly confirmed to investigators that the leaked paper had been shared with them.
Kulkarni also allegedly attempted to obtain the physics paper for the students. Investigators said the physics paper was separately leaked by Manisha Havaldar, who was part of the NTA panel responsible for setting the physics paper and translating it between English and Marathi.
The CBI alleges that Havaldar, despite having taken an oath of confidentiality, provided physics questions to the mother of a candidate for Rs 25,000 at the direction of another accused.
Eight days before the examination, Havaldar allegedly had handwritten notes of the leaked physics paper on her phone. She dictated the questions to accused Tejas Shah, who allegedly wrote them down on April 14. Shah was a member of the physics faculty and chief operating officer of Abhang Prabhu Medical Academy.
The leaked material also allegedly travelled to Rajasthan. Four days before the examination, 11 sets of question papers were reportedly transported in a black Hyundai Verna to Jhunjhunu. The chargesheet says Sikar-based relatives Mangilal Biwal and Dinesh Biwal were involved in transporting printed material covering the full physics, chemistry and biology syllabus.
One of the alleged receivers, identified as Amit, reportedly kept candidates’ Class X and XII marksheets as security. Candidates were allegedly told that they would have to pay only if more than 150 questions matched the actual examination paper.
Another accused, Shivraj Motegaonkar, managing partner of RCC coaching centre, allegedly circulated leaked papers to students while presenting them as the “most expected” questions for the examination.
According to investigators, on the night before the NEET-UG exam, a PDF containing the leaked paper was circulated among 40-50 hostel students at RCC coaching facilities.
After the May 3 examination, some students appeared in a video claiming that questions predicted by Motegaonkar had appeared in the test. The CBI subsequently determined that the document circulated as the “RCC MOCK test question paper” was, in fact, the leaked examination paper.
The investigation, therefore, began with what appeared to be an ordinary WhatsApp message but expanded into a trail of digital access records, phone data, chat groups, handwritten notes and financial transactions—allowing investigators to connect candidates to intermediaries and ultimately to those allegedly involved in leaking the question papers.
