CBI arrests 5 from across states as NEET leak probe intensifies

THe telephone exchange Bureau of investigating arrested v people on wed in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak out case, including the man investigators believe first couriered the question paper into the network — a BAMS graduate and practising doctor from Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar who was also doing medical college admissions counselling — and a Sikar-based family that bought the paper for ₹15 lakh and sold it onward for ₹30 lakh.Two others were detained by state police on the CBI’s behalf, as investigators mapped a complete financial chain running from Maharashtra through Haryana to Rajasthan’s coaching belt.Dhananjay Lokhande, 26, from Rahuri tehsil in Ahilyanagar, is the earliest known node in the chain of a leak that will now require close to 2.3 million medical college aspirants to retake a test that most spend months, if not years, preparing for.Lokhande, a BAMS graduate from Mangaluru practising medicine in his home district, also did counselling related to medical college admissions — a proximity to the NEET ecosystem that investigators are examining closely. He allegedly couriered the so-called “guess paper” to Shubham Khairnar, who paid ₹10 lakh for it. He was picked up from his village in the early hours of Wednesday following a CBI tip-off.The five formally arrested by CBI are Lokhande, Yash Yadav from Gurugram, Dinesh Biwal, his brother Mangilal Biwal and Mangilal’s son Vikas from Jaipur’s Jamwa Ramgarh, and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik. Khairnar was detained by Maharashtra police on Tuesday and whose custody has since been transferred to the agency.The Biwal brothers and Vikas had been detained by the Rajasthan SOG on Monday for questioning; CBI formally arrested them on Wednesday morning.Manisha Waghmare from Pune too was detained by state police on the CBI’s behalf. All are being questioned by the CBI in Jaipur; Khairnar is being brought to Delhi for further interrogation.A CBI team also visited the NTA headquarters in Delhi to collect documents related to the examination. “Several other suspects are currently being examined,” a CBI spokesperson said. “The agency has formed multiple teams to investigate all aspects of the leak. Key persons involved in sharing the question paper are being traced. The CBI is pursuing all leads through extensive technical and forensic analysis.” Incriminating materials and electronic devices, including mobile phones, were seized across multiple locations.The money trail, as far as investigators have pieced together, goes: Lokhande couriered the guess paper to Khairnar for ₹10 lakh. Khairnar sold it to Yadav in Gurugram for ₹15 lakh. Yadav passed it to the Biwal brothers for ₹15 lakh. “Dinesh Biwal and his brother Mangilal Biwal received the guess paper containing 120 questions of NEET-2026 from Yash Yadav from Haryana. They purchased it for ₹15 lakh and then sold it in Sikar for a total of ₹30 lakh,” the SOG said. The paper then moved to Rakesh Kumar, a counsellor at a Sikar coaching centre, who sold it to the owner of a coaching centre and PG hostel — from where it spread across Telegram channels nationwide.Waghmare, 46, who runs a beauty parlour in Pune’s Bibvewadi — her husband is a dentist — is believed to have connected students to Lokhande after accepting payments. Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar confirmed her detention. “Initial investigation suggests that Waghmare connected students to Lokhande after accepting payments. However, her exact role and the scale of her involvement will become clear only after detailed interrogation,” a police officer said.Jaipur : The arrest of Dinesh Biwal — secretary of the BJP’s youth wing in Jamwa Ramgarh in 2014 — has added a political dimension to the investigation. The Biwals had shifted from Jamwa Ramgarh to Sikar four to five years ago and were running a money-lending business.BJP spokesperson Ram Lal Sharma moved quickly to distance the party. “Dinesh was not much active in the party. He was not assigned any designation after 2014. Police is investigating the matter. Necessary action will be taken against all the culprits.”But Biwal’s Facebook profile tells a different story of social proximity. It shows photographs with Rajasthan education minister Madan Dilawar from 2021 and more recent photographs with local BJP MLA Mahendra Pal Meena — who, three days ago, shared a photograph of Biwal on Facebook wishing him on his birthday. HT has seen the photos.The investigation has now widened beyond the 2026 exam. The CBI, according to a Rajasthan SOG officer who asked not to be named, will look into whether the Biwal family used access to leaked papers to benefit their own members in previous examinations.Investigators said four candidates from Dinesh’s family — Mangilal’s two sons and the two daughters of their late elder brother — qualified NEET last year; two are in government medical colleges and two in private. Dinesh’s son Rishi appeared in NEET this year. “We are suspecting that Dinesh provided the paper to his own son as well. It is also possible that they attempted some irregularities in the NEET exam the previous year. We are searching for them,” a senior SOG officer said, requesting anonymity. Four of Dinesh’s relatives remain absconding.Mangilal’s wife rejected the allegations outright. “There is no truth in this. My husband and brother-in-law have been wrongly framed. My husband was picked up from our home by 10 people. It is a conspiracy,” she said.