The CBI has told a special court that a coaching centre owner from Latur in Maharashtra, who was arrested in the NEET paper leak case, paid Rs 5 lakh to get chemistry questions before the examination. In its response to a bail plea filed by Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, the agency said he procured the questions as part of a conspiracy with the co-accused.
The CBI said Motegaonkar allegedly got the questions from PV Kulkarni, who was on the National Testing Agency panel which set the paper. It alleged that Motegaonkar’s son attended Kulkarni’s coaching classes, where the questions were provided.
According to the CBI, Motegaonkar, “in conspiracy with the co-accused, procured NEET (UG) leaked chemistry questions prior to exam, and paid Rs 5 lakh for the same”. The agency said he prepared handwritten notes from the questions provided in Kulkarni’s chemistry tutorial classes.
The CBI told the court that it had recovered Motegaonkar’s phone, which contained 36 images, including five duplicate images, carrying 132 handwritten chemistry questions. It said 111 of these allegedly matched the questions in the NTA’s master question sets prepared for NEET (UG) 2026.
The agency claimed the notes were purportedly in Motegaonkar’s handwriting. It said the metadata analysis showed the pictures were taken nearly 10 days before the May 3 NEET (UG) examination. The CBI said, “Incriminating notes of chemistry questions relating to NEET UG 2026, allegedly in the handwriting of ...Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar were recovered from his mobile phone. The money allegedly paid for sourcing the leaked questions was recovered by CBI at the instance of co-accused Manoj Bhagwanrao Shirure.”
The agency has arrested 13 people in the case and said all of them are in judicial custody. On May 12, the NTA cancelled NEET-UG, which had been held on May 3 for medical admissions, following allegations of a paper leak. A re-examination was later held on June 21.
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