FACT CHECK: Did NEET paper get 'leaked again' before June 21 re-test? Centre clarifies

With just a week to go for the rescheduled NEET-UG examination on June 21 after the results of the original were cancelled, fresh claims have arisen about the re-test paper being leaked.

This comes after a scam to leak and sell the question papers was uncovered earlier this year, which led to the results of the original being disqualified, a string of student suicides, an ongoing probe, and protests calling for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation.

Claims of the re-test paper allegedly being leaked again were made by an X user named Bibin, who posted a screenshot of what looks like the first page of a NEET question paper.

His claim about the paper, which seems to have been obtained from a Telegram group called 'Proofs/Price', has since been debunked as fake by PIB Fact Check, the fact-checking arm of the Centre.

"Candidates are advised not to trust, share, or rely on any unverified examination-related content," it wrote in an X post.

This comes days after the National Testing Agency (NTA)—which conducts the NEET exam—itself declared that claims of the re-test paper being leaked on Telegram were false.

"Certain messages circulating on social media and messaging platforms claiming a 'leak', advance access, or 'sale' of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination question paper ... are false, fraudulent, and intended to mislead," the agency wrote in a June 6 post on X.

The NTA had been responding to screenshots of multiple groups with around 1,000 members each, all claiming to have the leaked paper, with one group allegedly offering to sell it for a starting price of Rs 35,000.

Some netizens have also alleged that many of the groups were being operated by a single person, and have urged the NTA and Cyberdost—the official handle of the I4C—to investigate the matter before the exam begins.