NEET UG leak row: Rs 5 lakh bribe to paper-setter, 111 Of 136 questions matched' CBI informs court
PTC News Desk: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday informed a special court that a coaching centre owner from Maharashtra's Latur, arrested in the NEET paper leak case, allegedly paid Rs 5 lakh to get chemistry questions before the examination.
The CBI has opposed the bail plea of Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, alleging that he was part of a conspiracy to obtain leaked NEET (UG) 2026 chemistry questions before the examination.
According to the agency, Motegaonkar allegedly received the questions from co-accused PV Kulkarni, who was a member of the National Testing Agency (NTA) panel responsible for preparing the exam paper. The CBI claimed that Kulkarni shared the questions during chemistry coaching classes attended by Motegaonkar's son.
The agency alleged that Motegaonkar, who runs a coaching centre in Latur, Maharashtra, paid Rs 5 lakh to obtain the leaked chemistry questions. It further claimed that he prepared handwritten notes based on the questions shared during Kulkarni's coaching sessions.
The CBI told the court that it recovered Motegaonkar's mobile phone, which contained 36 images, including five duplicates, with 132 handwritten chemistry questions. According to the agency, 111 of these questions matched those in the NTA's master question sets for NEET (UG) 2026.
The agency also claimed that the handwritten notes were in Motegaonkar's handwriting. Metadata from the phone allegedly showed that the images were taken around 10 days before the NEET (UG) exam held on May 3.
The CBI further told the court that the handwritten chemistry notes were recovered from Motegaonkar's phone, while the Rs 5 lakh allegedly paid to obtain the leaked questions was recovered during the investigation at the instance of co-accused Manoj Bhagwanrao Shirure.
So far, the CBI has arrested 13 people in the case, and all of them are currently in judicial custody.
The NTA had cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 exam, conducted on May 3, after allegations of a paper leak. A fresh examination was later held on June 21.
- With inputs from agencies
