Kamal Ghorui
JAIPUR: The Central Bureau of Investigation Wednesday arrested five people, including three members of a Jaipur family, in the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case—action taken within 24 hours of the agency arriving in Jaipur to take over the probe.The accused were identified as Dinesh Biwal, his brother Mangilal Biwal, and Mangilal’s son Vikas Biwal—all residents of Jamwa-Ramgarh in Jaipur district—along with Yash Yadav from Gurgaon and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.Also read: Tamil Nadu CM Vijay calls for NEET to be abolished after paper leakSources said the agency took Dinesh, Mangilal, Vikas and Yash to New Delhi after producing them before a court in the city on Wednesday. Vikas had also appeared for NEET last year but failed, and his chances of clearing the examination appeared dim this year too.The arrests came less than 24 hours after the CBI formally took over the probe from Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG), which had first stumbled upon suspicious “guess paper” circulating before the May 3 examination.Also read: NEET-UG cancelled after ‘paper leak’, 23 lakh students hit, CBI to probe caseInvestigators are focusing on the Biwal family after sources said four children from the family had previously cleared NEET in 2025 and are currently studying in different medical colleges, while Dinesh Biwal’s son was allegedly preparing for NEET-UG 2026 in Sikar.Officials suspect Dinesh travelled to Sikar around April 29 to hand over the question set to his minor son. Investigators believe he procured the material from Yash between April 26 and 27 before allegedly deciding to distribute it further.“It appears that Dinesh had shared it with around 10 persons,” an official said.Sources said investigators are also probing whether Dinesh’s son further circulated the material among friends at his coaching institute, potentially widening the chain of dissemination inside Sikar’s tightly-knit coaching ecosystem.The probe has also raised questions for authorities in Rajasthan over whether early warnings were acted upon quickly enough. Sources said a faculty member at a coaching institute in Sikar alerted authorities after noticing that a widely circulated “guess paper” shared across WhatsApp and Telegram groups contained a large number of questions matching the actual NEET paper.The whistleblower emailed the National Testing Agency (NTA), following which the information reached the SOG headquarters in Jaipur on May 8. SOG teams reached Sikar the same day and began quietly questioning students and other suspects.During the initial probe, investigators also came across the name of Rakesh Mandawariya, who allegedly runs an MBBS consultancy firm by the name of RK Consultancy, and is now under scrutiny. Mandawariya was detained on May 8 for questioning.The episode has now sparked serious questions over why the Rajasthan govt did not immediately raise alarm or register an FIR, despite SOG uncovering significant overlaps between the circulated material and the actual NEET paper between May 8 and May 10, until the matter began spilling into public forums. The state govt waited for the NTA’s assessment and the Centre’s decision to transfer the probe to the CBI before formal action gathered pace.
