From Nashik to Sikar: How India’s Most Trusted Medical Entrance Exam NEET-UG Was Sold on WhatsApp!
On the evening of May 2, the night before one of India’s most competitive examinations, a message landed on a father’s phone in Sikar, Rajasthan. It was from his son, an MBBS student studying in Kerala. The message read simply: “My friend from Sikar sent these to me. Please give them to the girls in your hostel. These are the questions that will come tomorrow.”
That father worked as an operator of a PG hostel. He didn’t read the papers that night. He distributed them to the resident students the next morning, hours before the exam. When it was all over, he took the papers to a nearby coaching teacher and asked how many of the questions had actually appeared in the test. The results were staggering. All 90 Biology questions asked in the NEET exam were found within the circulated material. All 45 Chemistry questions were also present and, most tellingly, they appeared in an unbroken sequence, without a single change in punctuation, comma, or full stop. In total, 135 of NEET’s 180 questions were allegedly present in the circulated guess papers.
That one check, done by an ordinary coaching teacher in a small Rajasthan town, unravelled what investigators now believe is a calculated, multi-state criminal network. And it ended the NEET-UG 2026 examination along with the hopes of over 22 lakh students who had spent months, sometimes years, preparing for it.
Two Years of Work. One Leaked Paper
Across India, the typical NEET aspirant spends anywhere between one and three years preparing for this exam. Families rearrange entire lives around it, fathers taking loans, mothers selling jewellery, children sacrificing sleep and social lives in pursuit of an MBBS seat. The exam, held on May 3 across 5,432 centres in 551 cities in India and 14 international cities, is the only gateway to government medical colleges in the country.
The betrayal, then, is not just institutional. It is personal.
How the Leak Actually Happened
Investigators believe the paper was leaked from the printing press in Nashik itself. A person allegedly linked to the press passed it into a chain network that moved through a doctor in Gurugram to a middleman in Jaipur, before reaching Rakesh Kumar Mandawaria in Sikar, an MBBS counselling agent who used his proximity to coaching institutes to distribute the material.
Mandawaria, who runs SK Consultancy on Piprali Road in Sikar, reportedly received the question bank as early as April. Questions were then taught in several coaching institutes, labelled as “guess papers” but with a pointed instruction to students: “This is what you’ll get.”
It is alleged he sold the paper for ₹30,000 to an MBBS student in Kerala. Prices across the network ranged from ₹30,000 to as high as ₹28 lakh. One student from Nagaur reportedly paid ₹28 lakh just four days before the exam after receiving a tip-off from Delhi.
Investigators have traced a digital trail to a WhatsApp group called “Private Mafia,” which reportedly had around 400 members and served as a platform to upload and distribute the leaked papers spread across 10 state.
When the hostel operator took his concerns to the Rajasthan Police, he was reportedly told, “Don’t spread rumours.” He then went directly to the NTA.
The Network: Sikar to Jaipur to Kerala to Gurugram
This was not a local operation. The Rajasthan SOG has widened its crackdown significantly, with around 9 people arrested across 5 states. Manish Yadav, identified as the alleged mastermind behind the operation, was taken into custody from Jaipur. Rakesh Mandawaria, who allegedly distributed the leaked paper, has also been detained.
Investigators have also linked the alleged leak trail to an MBBS student from Rajasthan’s Churu district studying at a medical college in Kerala. According to officials, the student allegedly sent handwritten material to an associate in Sikar on May 1, following which it was circulated through coaching-linked networks and career counsellors.
A Gurugram-based doctor is also reportedly under the scanner, though no official arrest or confirmation has been made so far. IMA Gurugram president Dr Rajesh Kataria stated that no investigating agency had officially contacted the local medical body yet.
Around 15 people from Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur, and Dehradun have been detained in connection with the alleged procurement and distribution of the guess papers. Avinash Lamba and Manish Yadav from Jaipur have also reportedly been detained.
The CBI Steps In
The Centre has handed the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation for a comprehensive probe. A youth named Shubham Khairnar was arrested by the Nashik City Crime Branch and is to be transferred to the Rajasthan Police before being handed to the CBI.
This is not the first time the CBI has been called in on a NEET-related case. The 2024 edition saw similar chaos, paper leaks emerging from Bihar, nationwide protests, and Supreme Court hearings. Back then, the apex court had refused to cancel the entire exam, limiting retests to select centres. This time, the government moved faster. The exam has been cancelled outright.
What the IMA and Politicians Are Saying
The Indian Medical Association’s National President, Dr Anil Kumar J Nayak, welcomed the cancellation but did not spare the government either. “Last time, the government had established strict regulations for this examination; however, this incident has now occurred for the second time,” he said, calling for a thorough investigation and suggesting that the CBSE should be given charge of conducting NEET going forward.
Opposition leaders were sharper. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on X, “NEET is not an exam anymore, it is an auction. The trust of 22 lakh children has been shattered. In 10 years, 89 paper leaks and 48 re-exams.” Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, meanwhile, declined to comment when reporters approached him.
What Students Need to Know Right Now
If you appeared for NEET-UG 2026 on May 3, here is what the NTA has confirmed:
- No re-registration required. Your registration details, examination centre preferences, and candidature information remain valid for the re-examination.
- No extra fee. The re-exam will be conducted at no additional cost to students.
- Fees already paid will be refunded.
- The NTA Director General has said the re-examination schedule will be announced within 7–10 days, with the stated intent to cause as little disruption to the medical college admission calendar as possible.
- The provisional answer key that was released on May 7 is no longer relevant.
Key Statements from NTA DG Abhishek Singh today
- Re-Exam Schedule: The schedule and dates for the re-examination will be announced within the next 7 to 10 days, with efforts to conduct the exam in the shortest possible time to minimize disruption.
- Zero Tolerance: “Even if a single question matches our question paper, then our commitment to zero tolerance and zero error is violated, and our entire process is compromised”.
- Candidate Details: Registration data, candidature, and chosen exam centres from the May 2026 cycle remain valid, and no additional fee is required.
- Investigation: The matter has been referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the paper leak.
- Commitment to Fairness: The NTA DG apologized for the situation, calling it “embarrassing” but emphasizing a commitment to a transparent and fair re-examination.