A Delhi court on Saturday sent the alleged kingpin in the NEET paper leak case, P V Kulkarni, and another accused, Manisha Waghmare, to CBI custody for 10 days, even as the Centre appointed two joint secretaries and two joint directors in the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is under the heat over the NEET-UG paper leak.
Special CBI judge Ajay Gupta remanded Kulkarni and Waghmare in CBI custody after the probe agency submitted that the duo needed to be taken outside the national capital for further investigation and that the larger conspiracy had to be investigated.
Special Public Prosecutor Neetu Gupta appeared for the federal agency and sought a 14-day remand for the interrogation of the two accused.
During the proceedings, the CBI said that Kulkarni was a subject expert and had been associated with setting up the 2026 NEET UG question paper.
It said that co-accused Dhananjay Lokhande had collected the leaked material from Manisha Waghmare.
The development came as biology lecturer Manisha Mandhare, who was part of the National Testing Agency's (NTA) paper-setting committee, was arrested on Saturday after being questioned by the agency at its headquarters.
Considering the detailed arguments made by the agency and the counsel for the accused, the court remanded the two to CBI custody for 10 days.
According to the CBI, Kulkarni was a lecturer of Chemistry involved in the process of examination on behalf of NTA and had access to the question papers.
It had earlier said that during the last week of April this year, Kulkarni had mobilised students, with the help of Waghmare, and conducted special coaching classes for these students at his residence in Pune.
“He dictated the questions along with options and the correct answers during these special coaching classes, and the questions so dictated were handwritten by students in their notebooks and have exactly tallied with the actual question paper of NEET-UG 2026 Examination held on May 3,” the agency had alleged.
Earlier on Friday, the court had sent accused Dhananjay Lokhande to CBI custody for six days.
On Thursday, five others, Shubham Khairnar from Nashik, Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal from Jaipur, and Yash Yadav from Gurugram, were sent to CBI custody till May 20.
The NEET (UG) 2026 exam for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges, held on May 3, was cancelled on Tuesday amid allegations of paper leak.
The government had asked the CBI to carry out a comprehensive inquiry into the “irregularities”.
Meanwhile, the Centre appointed two each joint secretaries and joint directors in the National Testing Agency.
Anuja Bapat, a 1998-batch officer of Indian Statistical Service, and Ruchita Vij, a 2004-batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Indirect Taxes), will be new joint secretaries in the NTA for five years, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said.
Akash Jain, an Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) officer, and Aditya Rajendra Bhojgadhiya, an Indian Audit and Accounts Service officer, have been named joint directors in the NTA, the ministry said in a separate order.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case and formed teams to probe the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test- Undergraduate (NEET-UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA across the country.