The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday cancelled the NEET undergraduate medical entrance exam held on May 3 amid allegations of a paper leak, with the government asking the CBI to carry out a comprehensive inquiry into the “irregularity”.
The exam will now be held afresh on dates to be notified separately.
Close to 23 lakh registered candidates took the NEET-UG 2026 across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad.
Rajasthan police said on Monday that they had begun a probe into an alleged paper leak before the May 3 exam.
NTA director-general Abhishek Singh told reporters on Tuesday that the agency had received information from a whistleblower about a PDF document that had been circulated via WhatsApp before the NEET having "some" questions that matched some of those in the exam paper.
He said the test was cancelled because this amounted to vitiating the exam
process.
“You may call it leak or violation of process or irregularity. We have zero tolerance for any violation.... Had we not cancelled the exam, it would have encouraged the scamsters,” Singh said.
He said none of the four versions of the question papers the NTA had prepared had been leaked. Singh, however, did not divulge details of the modus operandi of the irregularity.
The NTA chief said the retest date would be announced in 7 to 10 days so that the academic schedule of medical colleges was not affected.
In a statement on X earlier, the NTA, an autonomous body under the education ministry that was established in November 2017 to conduct entrance exams, said the decision to cancel the NEET-UG 2026 was taken in the interest of maintaining transparency and preserving trust in the national examination system.
“On the basis of inputs subsequently examined by NTA in coordination with central agencies, and the investigative findings shared by the law enforcement agencies, the National Testing Agency, with the approval of the Government of India, has decided to cancel the NEET (UG) 2026 examination conducted on 3 May 2026, and to re-conduct the examination on dates that will be notified separately,” the agency said.
The agency said the inputs received, taken together with findings shared by law enforcement agencies, had established that the “present examination process could not be allowed to stand”.
“The re-conducted examination dates, along with the re-issued admit-card schedule, will be communicated through the official channels of the Agency in the coming days,” the NTA said.
In a media release, the CBI said it had registered an FIR. It said the charges related to BNS sections dealing with criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft and destruction of evidence, and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examination Prevention of Unfair Means Act.
“The allegations indicate a possible compromise of the sanctity and integrity of the examination process. The CBI has taken up the matter for a comprehensive investigation to ascertain the nature and extent of the alleged irregularities, as well as the involvement of individuals and entities connected therewith,” the probe agency said.
Special CBI teams have been formed and dispatched to various locations.
Nashik police said on Tuesday that they had detained a man in connection with the alleged paper leak.
Prof. Rajeev Kumar, retired professor of computer science at IIT Kharagpur, said there was a strong possibility that questions were lifted from a sample question bank. He pointed out that the NTA had never disclosed how leaks had happened in the past.
Rudrashish Chakraborty, a teacher at Kirori Mal College under Delhi University, said the NEET “paper leak” happened despite protocols, including strict checking of candidates at the exam centres.
Dr Satendra Singh, founder of the organisation Doctors with Disabilities, questioned the accountability of the NTA in view of repeated irregularities in exams.
The NTA had said in a post on X on Sunday that question papers had been transported in GPS-tracked vehicles carrying unique, traceable watermark identifiers, and the exam centres were monitored through AI-assisted CCTV surveillance from a central control room.