Mamata Sharma, a resident of Bareilly, followed every instruction when she arrived to appear for the NEET-UG exam on May 3. She wore a plain kurta and flip flops. She made sure there was no metal on her body. She was still stopped at the entrance during the first round of checks.
“My hair tie was too broad, I was told,” Mamata said. At the gate, an official asked her to replace it with a simple rubber band available at the centre, to which she complied.
“I did find it absurd. What could I have possibly hidden in my hair tie? But it was part of the protocol,” she told Decode.
The protocol allowed for only light-coloured, half-sleeve clothes. Shoes, watches, jewellery and other accessories were prohibited. Candidates wearing religious attire were asked to report early for extra checks.
And yet, despite all these measures in place, the question paper for India’s largest medical entrance examination, got leaked. The examination was declared invalid on May 12, after over 22 lakh students had already taken the exam.
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, or NEET-UG, is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to undergraduate medical courses. Each year, over 20 lakh candidates appear for it, making it one of the most tightly regulated examinations in the country.
“No possibility of paper leaks”
At the centres, this regulation was visible. Students were required to carry their Aadhaar cards for biometric authentication. Fingerprint scans were taken, followed by facial scans. Only after clearing these layers were they allowed inside exam halls monitored by invigilators and AI-enabled CCTV cameras.
“Why put all these layers of security checks when they cannot even guard the question paper from being leaked?” Mamata asked. This was her fifth attempt.
Similar experiences played out across centres. Abhijeet, a resident of Gorakhpur, said the zipper head on his track pants had to be removed because it was metal. Arijit, a first-time candidate, was asked to take his kalawa off the wrist.
Most students arrived well in advance as they anticipated the process would take time. “My centre was 18 km away from my house. I left at 11 AM for a 2 PM exam,” Abhijeet said.
“But all this security, time and efforts make sense only if it is followed from top to bottom. Not just at the last mile,” he added.
Besides the security measures for students, there were also safety protocols for the question paper that eventually got leaked.
The papers were transported under GPS tracking. Packets were digitally locked to open only at authorised centres and at the scheduled time. Moreover, signal jammers were installed to block mobile networks and Bluetooth. The system was touted to seal every possible gap.
The NTA, in a post on X dated April 29, said all question papers had safely reached their final destinations under the highest level of security, adding that there was “no possibility of paper leaks or early access”.
But the breach had already happened before these layers of security came into play. Students were frisked, biometrics were taken, and the paper made its way into exam halls—but it had already been leaked by then.
Inside the leak investigation
The investigation into the cancelled NEET-UG 2026 exam is now with the CBI. The first breakthrough came from a chemistry teacher in Rajasthan’s Sikar.
The teacher came across a question paper circulating on WhatsApp shortly after the May 3 exam. When he compared it with the actual paper, 45 chemistry questions matched. On checking with a biology colleague, further 90 questions matched in that subject.
He approached the Udyog Nagar police station but was asked to submit more proof. Over the next two days, he collected screenshots, PDFs, and message trails and sent a detailed complaint on May 6 to the Union Home Ministry and the NTA. Within hours, he was contacted by senior NTA officials and the CBI.
What has emerged since points to a network that was already in motion before exam day. Investigators say the paper was circulated across states as a “guess paper”, sold for Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. It was in circulation for between 15 days and a month before the exam. The trail spans Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Kerala.
A hard copy of the paper is believed to have been accessed early and moved through couriers, coaching networks and WhatsApp groups. Arrests have been made across Rajasthan and Bihar, with more detentions in Haryana and Maharashtra as the trail widened.
The probe has also reached inside the system with a retired professor, who was part of the paper-setting panel, being arrested.
A recurring pattern, digitally adept
This is not the first time NEET has seen a breach.
In 2024, investigations revealed that papers were physically extracted from sealed trunks, scanned, and circulated to paying candidates. Over 100 candidates were linked to the leak which led to dozens of arrests.
The network involved “solvers”, a group of medical students who would answer the paper for those who had access in advance.
The alleged mastermind was traced to a multi-state gang operating across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
Telegram, in this ecosystem, often acts as the perfect distribution layer. The app has been named in multiple exam leak cases in India over the years, from NEET-UG and JEE-related scams to recruitment exams like UP Police, SSC and state-level teacher eligibility tests. It allowed question papers to be circulated in closed groups, often minutes or hours after being accessed.
Ahead of NEET-UG 2025, the NTA identified 106 Telegram channels spreading claims of paper leaks and flagged over 1,500 such instances, many of them used to sell so-called “leaked papers” or “guaranteed questions”.
In the ongoing NEET probe, Telegram channels have again come under scrutiny in government reviews of the leak.
The pattern is not just limited to NEET alone. Ahead of the UP Police Sub-Inspector recruitment exam, last year, police flagged multiple Telegram channels that were claiming to be selling question papers, demanding payments of Rs 10,000– Rs 20,000 through UPI and digital wallets.
Decode had earlier reported how cyber police and investigators often hit a dead end when illicit activity traces back to Telegram. Features like end-to-end encryption in secret chats and self-destructing messages make trails difficult to preserve. Coupled with limited cooperation from the platform, channels can be taken down and recreated quickly, making enforcement harder.
Can a computer-based system prevent another paper leak?
The National Testing Agency has now announced June 21 as the new date for the NEET-UG 2026 retest. Following the decision, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the re-exam was necessary to ensure that “no deserving candidate” is affected by the actions of what he called the “exam mafia”.
Admit cards are expected to be issued by June 14, and students will be given the option to choose their exam city for the retest. The minister also said that exam fees will be refunded to affected candidates, and no additional charges will be levied for appearing again.
But the bigger shift is what comes next. From 2027, NEET is expected to move to a computer-based format, a change the ministry believes will reduce the risks tied to printing, transporting, and storing physical papers.
That has been a long-standing demand. After the 2024 controversy, a Supreme Court-linked review led to the formation of the Radhakrishnan committee, which flagged exactly these weak points in the system. Its recommendations included moving toward digital question delivery and tightening custody protocols, many of which are now being revisited.
Pankaj Bansal, who was part of that reform exercise, has said that a computer-based test could eliminate 95% of the vulnerabilities. He argued that conducting a single-shift paper-based examination for more than 22 lakh candidates had become operationally unsustainable.
"Nowhere in the world do 22 lakh people go and write a test on paper," he said.
To prevent any recurrence, the process is being redesigned with layers of tech, like encrypted question papers, controlled access systems, biometric verification, and AI-led monitoring at centres. Printing, where unavoidable, is being pushed closer to exam time and into high-security environments.
The NTA itself is undergoing changes, including new leadership hires across technology and operations, after facing criticism over how the crisis was handled.
On the ground, preparation has resumed. Coaching institutes like ALLEN have begun offering free guidance for the intervening period. Students, Decode spoke to are back to studying. Mamata said she was relieved after the announcement. “At least non-deserving candidates will not get through if the paper had not been cancelled,” she said.
Not everyone is convinced the format change will fix the problem. Abhijeet remains cautious. “Computer-based exams are a welcome change,” he said, “but bad actors find a way. They just adapt with the tech.”
