The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has apprehended another key suspect in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, identifying her as the primary source of the compromised physics questions.
The accused, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar, is employed at Seth Hiralal Saraf Prashala in Pune, Maharashtra. According to the CBI, Havaldar was directly involved in the NEET-UG 2026 examination process after being appointed as an expert by the National Testing Agency (NTA). This position reportedly granted her complete access to the physics question papers. Investigators allege that she played a central role in leaking the physics section, making her the 11th individual arrested by the central agency in connection with the nationwide probe.
The investigation into the physics section was initiated after the NTA formally requested the CBI to examine whether those specific questions had been compromised. The request followed suspicions that circulating guess papers might have been extracted from the agency’s confidential backup sets. This latest development follows earlier confirmations that chemistry and biology questions were sold to students for up to ₹30 lakh at least a week before the May 3 exam, according to individuals familiar with the matter who spoke on Wednesday.
Due to the sheer volume of questions being circulated, investigators suspect the leaked PDFs may have contained material compiled from multiple exam sets. The compromised chemistry document alone featured 104 solved questionsnearly double the 45 that appeared on the actual test. This discrepancy has fueled concerns that the leaked documents included alternate or contingency sets prepared in case the main paper was breached.
Prior to Havaldar’s apprehension, the CBI had arrested 10 other individuals linked to the scandal. These include Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, founder of a coaching center in Latur; PV Kulkarni, a retired chemistry lecturer from Pune; and Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, a Pune-based botany teacher. Both Kulkarni and Mandhare were also members of the NTA’s NEET-UG 2026 expert panel.
The NTA administered the NEET-UG on May 3, with more than 2.27 million candidates appearing for the pen-and-paper test. The examination comprises 180 questions in total, including 45 each in physics and chemistry, alongside 90 in biology.
CBI Expands Probe With Arrests of Pune Professors
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