As part of its probe into the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted a report pointing out procedural lapses in exam preparation at the National Testing Agency (NTA), including subject experts having access to the final set of question papers and shortcomings in CCTV coverage at the agency’s office.
In its report submitted late last month, CBI has also recommended measures to prevent such leaks in future, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Its assessment report, sent to the Union ministry of education, mainly recommends systemic reforms and corrective measures modeled on transparency and security protocols.
To be sure, the premier anti-corruption agency has not found any criminality on the part of any government officer posted in NTA. It has named three external subject experts –retired chemistry professor P V Kulkarni, botany teacher Manisha Mandhare, and a physics teacher Manisha Havaldar—as the source of the leak in the main charge sheet against 13 individuals filed on July 28. A supplementary charge sheet filed on Wednesday too does not name any NTA official.
Also read: No govt, NTA official named as CBI files supplementary chargesheet over NEET paper leak
The CBI started its investigation into alleged irregularities and paper leak in the May 3 National Eligibility cum Entrance Test examination for undergraduate medical courses, which triggered nationwide protests, following a complaint by the Union education ministry on May 12.
CBI, based on its investigations, is mandated to recommend policy or procedural changes to the government to plug loopholes that enable fraud, corruption or other criminal activities.
“After completing our investigations in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, we have sent a detailed report to the Centre outlining procedural lapses in the exam process and recommending systematic changes,” said an officer, requesting anonymity.
Also read: CBI names Nanded resident in new NEET leak charge sheet
Experts had access to final question sets
CBI in its report said that experts, including the three named in the chargesheet, had access to the final sets of questions, according to this officer.
“In the process of setting questions for NEET-UG 2026, there is an item writing stage for every subject for which experts were called to prepare questions and their answer options. In the next step, some experts are called to work as moderators who select the questions for 4 sets to be prepared for NTA,” the officer said. “Then a different set of subject experts called as vetters solved the question sets finalized by moderators. Then, the finalised question sets were translated into vernacular languages by subject experts. In the final step, the translated versions were back translated to English by subject experts to verify the accuracy of the translation and to ensure that no context is lost in translation,” the officer explained.
Some experts were involved in more than one stage, the officer pointed out. “Ideally, different experts should have been assigned for every stage, and access to the final set of question sets by individual experts should have been restricted,” he pointed out.
Also read: ‘NEET exam system foolproof, difficult to breach’: Centre to SC after paper leak
Short CCTV backup period hampered leak investigation
CBI has also flagged shortcomings in the CCTV surveillance at the NTA office at the NSIC building in Delhi’s Okhla, where confidential work related to the exam papers was conducted, a second officer said. NTA has since shifted to a new office on Minto Road.
The office had CCTV footage backups of only 20-25 days, which limited CBI’s ability to recreate the sequence of events of the leak, the officer said.
“All the confidential work related to papers was completed on April 7 while the investigations started on May 12. By then, the relevant footage was not available. The NTA also didn’t have a dedicated CCTV live feed monitoring control room due to which the activities of experts in the confidential hall went unnoticed. We have conveyed that there should be complete CCTV coverage of NTA in every area and back-up should be maintained for the entire period,” this officer said.
CBI also found that experts involved in the setting of paper and translation were provided blank sheets inside the confidential section for rough work. Kulkarni used these to note down, as small chits, all 135 chemistry questions and the answer options, according to the CBI.
Security checks missing at confidential section
“There were no frisking or metal-detector checks when experts entered or exited the confidential section of NTA. We have highlighted these shortcomings in our report,” the officer added.
The report comes amid a wider overhaul of the examination agency. The Union education ministry on August 17 removed 50 NTA staff. NTA subsequently said its examination team was revamped, with 600 subject experts removed and new experts brought in, besides the introduction of a four-tier question-paper scrutiny system.
The Centre has also set up a six-member high-powered task force headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to recommend technological interventions and structural reforms for NTA.
Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape. Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption. He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence. Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings. He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship. He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism. Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More