– Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)

The neet-ug 2026 exam papers leakage scandal, which has resulted in cancellation and re-scheduling of this high-stakes centralised exam written by 2.2 million students competing for 1.3 lakh undergrad seats in 824 medical colleges countrywide, has its seeds in Maharashtra.

A preliminary enquiry of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) indicates that 140 questions of the actual NEET-UG exam paper matched that of a widely circulated ‘guess paper’ placed for sale on social media. Of the 40 persons arrested so far in the multi-state scam spanning Rajasthan, Haryana and Maharashtra, eight of the 13 prime suspects are from Maharashtra’s Latur, Nashik and Pune — cities that form the backbone of the state’s higher education coaching ecosystem.

On May 14-15, CBI arrested P.V. Kulkarni, a retired chemistry professor from Latur’s Dayanand College, and Manisha Mandhare, a biology professor of Modern College, Pune. Appointed as subject experts by the National Testing Agency (NTA) to set the chemistry and biology question papers, Kulkarni and Mandhare allegedly sold the exam questions to students through a network of intermediaries that included doctors, principals and coaching school teachers. The duo is alleged to have sold exam questions to 75 students at Rs.2.5-3 lakh per head.

The Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) has demanded resignation of Modern College Principal Nivedita Ekbote claiming Ekbote’s position as the college principal and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Councillor from Pune is a deterrent to fair investigation of Manisha Mandhare’s role in the biology and zoology leaked questions.

Shivraj Motegaonkar: prime suspect

However, the BJP soon got its chance to hit back at the Congress when Latur-based Shivraj Motegaonkar, founder of Renukai Career Centre (RCC), was arrested on May 17. A self-professed Congress party activist, Motegaonkar had campaigned for Congress candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

With an annual sales revenue estimated at Rs.100 crore, RCC is a heavyweight in Maharashtra’s test prep, aka coaching industry, for NEET, JEE and CET public examinations. Since RCC was registered in 2003, Motegaonkar has established eight coaching centres and three K-12 schools. RCC’s rate card indicates Rs.1 lakh per year as tutorial fee for NEET-UG preparation, and boasts an annual enrolment of 40,000 students.

Over the years, Motegaonkar, aka ‘Guru’, has carefully cultivated his public image in interior Maharashtra. Among his claims are that exact exam paper questions appear to him in his dreams. Now his promotional social media posts are being scrutinised as evidence. Motegaonkar allegedly received the NEET-UG 2026 exam paper on his cell phone and had leaked the questions and answers prior to the May 3 examination. The CBI believes Motegaonkar is a prime suspect in the scam in Maharashtra and was instrumental in getting Prof. Kulkarni selected as an NTA examiner. Ironically, during the earlier NEET-UG 2024 exam paper leak scam, Motegoankar was a whistleblower in paper leaks and exam irregularities.

“We want anyone who is involved in the paper leaks punished. But the authorities need to realise that Motegaonkar is only a purchaser of the leaked paper. CBI’s focus should be on finding vendors sitting inside the NTA system. It is widely known that all NTA appointees are supporters of the BJP government’s ideology. Therefore, how can we expect the investigations to be fair? By focusing on Shivraj Motegaonkar’s arrest, the BJP is diverting focus from the real culprits who are inside the system,” says Sagar Salukhe, state unit president, NSUI.

Following Congress Party leader, Rahul Gandhi’s strident demands for resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, NSUI’s Maharashtra chapter staged a massive torch march in Amravati city, a Congress bastion, on June 5.

With the arrest of several educationists from the state, Maharashtra’s BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde) government is on the backfoot and the state’s reputation as a progressive, education-friendly destination has suffered a setback as 2.2 lakh students from the state prepare to rewrite NEET-UG 2026 on June 21.