The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test paper leak was reportedly exposed after a hostel owner and two teachers in Rajasthan alerted authorities.
The Rajasthan Special Operations Group believe that the papers were compromised either during printing or storage, or transport. Authorities believe that the first digital copy was made using high-definition scanners instead of a mobile camera.
Media reports said that one of the earliest transactions that was uncovered was of two brothers near Jaipur who purchased the paper from a doctor in Gurugram for Rs 30 lakh.
Investigators say that the original leak began with a handwritten “guess paper”, a paper that predicts what questions have a higher possibility of appearing on the exam. According them, an alleged leak network spread the material through coaching networks, telegram groups or high confidence predictions. Naming the leak “guess paper” also helped it circulate easily.
On May 2, a day before the exam, at around 11 pm, an MBBS student who hails from Rajasthan’s Sikar, studying in Kerala, sent a guess paper to his father, who runs a hostel for coaching student in Sikar.
Sources said that the Kerala Student got the paper in a PDF format from a friend in Sikar. Since he didn't need the guess paper, her forward it to his father, saying the paper could be helpful if any of the students at the hostel are appearing for NEET.
The next morning, his father offered the paper to four girls who were appearing for the exam. However, they had already left for the exam centre. The sequence was confirmed via WhatsApp records.
Out of curiosity, the hostel owner shared the paper with a chemistry teacher he knew on the morning of the day of the exam.
After the exam was over, the teacher compared the guess paper with the actual question sheet and found that 45 out of the 108 chemistry questions matched exactly word for word.
He then forwarded it to a biology teaching colleague. Together, they found that 90 out of the 204 biology questions matched the examination paper, making the total 135 questions. Investigators said that most of the questions were identical in wording and punctuation.
The hostel owner and one of the teachers then approached the local police in Sikar. However, the police allegedly refused to register a case and questioned why the complaint was being made after the examinations were over.
Sources said that the police also suspected that the complainants could have also simply wanted to have the exam cancelled.
The SOG who spoke to NDTV said that in a case of paper leak, they should have complained before the exam.
However, the teacher and the hostel owner sent them an email to the National Testing Agency or the NTA, which conducts the exams.
The NTA alerted the Intelligence Bureau, and on May 8, the Rajasthan Special Operations group began investigations into the case.
When tracing the origins of the guess paper, the team was led to a first year student of Ayurvedic medicine in Haryana who sold the paper for a large sum to aspirants in Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The student obtained the paper from a Pune based suspect for Rs 10 lakh and sold it to a buyer in Haryana for Rs15 lakh earning a profit of 5 lakhs.
Investigators questioned more than 150 NEET aspirants, parents, friends and individuals linked to coaching institutes. They are also looking into WhatsApp forward chains and a telegram network called private mafia that has around 400 members.
The NEET UG 2026 exam was cancelled by the National Testing Agency on Tuesday. The exam is to be conducted again on revised dates. Candidates will not have to re-register or pay additional fees.