NEET paper leak: what happened in 2024 and 2026, and what happened to the students who paid

Was the NEET paper leaked?

Twice, on the record.

In 2024, the Supreme Court of India recorded that "a leak of the NEET (UG) 2024 paper took place at Hazaribagh in the State of Jharkhand and at Patna in the State of Bihar" and that this was "not in dispute" (order of 23 July 2024). The exam was not cancelled.

In 2026, the NTA cancelled the whole exam. Its statement of 12 May said the inputs it received "established that the present examination process could not be allowed to stand" (The Statesman, 12 May 2026). The Times of India reported it as the first full cancellation of NEET since the NTA took over the exam in 2019.

Google's suggestions for "neet paper leak" on 29 October 2026 included "how many times" and "history". The short answer is two confirmed leaks of NEET-UG under the NTA, and each followed a different route. That matters, because each route shows a different way buyers get caught.

NEET 2024: how the paper was stolen

The Supreme Court's reasoned judgment of 2 August 2024 sets out the NTA's account. The leak "occurred between 8:02 am and 9:23 am on 5 May 2024". The accused entered "the strongroom at Oasis School through a rear door", opened the trunk holding the papers "from the rear so as not to break the seal", photographed them, resealed the envelope, and sent the images to paper solvers by about 9:30 am.

The CBI said the paper was "solved at Hazaribagh on the morning of examination ... by a set of solvers studying in MBBS courses at AIIMS Patna, RIMS Ranchi and a Medical College in Bharatpur" (Economic Times, 20 September 2024). It added: "The solved paper was shared with certain selected students who paid money to the accused." The school's principal, who was the NTA's city coordinator, and its vice-principal were chargesheeted, accused of letting an alleged mastermind into the room.

The Supreme Court found about 155 beneficiaries: "around 30 in Patna and around 125 in Hazaribagh". It also found no evidence that the paper or answers had spread "at random or en masse over social media". The leak was local, fast and expensive, which is why it could be traced to particular centres and particular students.

Why the court refused a re-test in 2024

About 23.3 lakh candidates sat NEET-UG 2024, competing for about 1.08 lakh medical admissions. A re-test would have made every one of them sit again. The court found "an absence of material on the record to lead to the conclusion that the entire result of the examination stands vitiated or that there was a systemic breach", and said a fresh exam would hurt students "belonging to marginalized communities and weaker sections".

It did not let the NTA off. The 2 August judgment says the episode "highlights several administrative and procedural flaws within NTA's management". Twelve centres handed out the wrong set of papers to about 3,307 candidates. Papers moved by e-rickshaw, which the court said "are relatively unsecured and lack proper monitoring". The number of perfect 720 scores fell from 67 to 17 as errors were corrected during the hearing, which the court called "a matter of serious concern". On grace marks it wrote: "Flip-flops are an anathema to fairness."

The court widened the remit of the expert committee led by K. Radhakrishnan to cover identity checks "with a view to preventing impersonation", CCTV, and locked, tracked vehicles. Most importantly for anyone tempted to buy a paper, it ordered that "stringent action in accordance with law shall be taken against every candidate who is detected or who may hereafter be detected to have been the beneficiary of any malpractice".

NEET 2026: the exam that was cancelled

NEET-UG 2026 was held on 3 May 2026 for 22.79 lakh candidates at more than 5,400 centres. According to the Times of India, whistleblower inputs reached the NTA on the night of 7 May, and checks found a PDF that had been on phones on 1 and 2 May. The material circulated as a "guess paper" of about 410 questions; about 120 Chemistry questions matched the real paper.

The NTA's Director General, Abhishek Singh, said: "even if a single question matches our question paper ... our entire process is compromised" and "We take responsibility for it." On 12 May the NTA cancelled the exam, refunded fees, and the CBI registered a case for criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and theft, including offences under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 (PIB, 12 May 2026).

The re-exam on 21 June was sat by "nearly 20 lakh candidates", and results on 16 July showed 11.21 lakh qualified (Indian Express, 16 July 2026). On 25 May, the Supreme Court said of the NTA: "We are so sad, they (NTA) haven't learnt their lessons."

How the 2026 questions got out, according to the CBI

The 2026 route was different from 2024. Nobody broke into a strongroom. The CBI says the questions walked out of the NTA in the heads and pockets of people trusted to set them.

On 15 May 2026 the government said the CBI had "identified and arrested the kingpin who was the source of the NEET-UG 2026 Examination paper leak", naming P.V. Kulkarni, "a Chemistry Lecturer involved in the examination process on behalf of the National Testing Agency", who "allegedly dictated the questions along with options and correct answers" (PIB, 15 May 2026). He is accused, not convicted. The release said students "allegedly paid several lakhs of rupees to attend the special coaching classes" where the questions were used.

The CBI's first chargesheet, filed on 28 July 2026, named 13 people, including three subject experts engaged by the NTA, people linked to coaching centres, middlemen and beneficiary candidates, according to PTI. The CBI says the chemistry expert wrote "all 135 Chemistry questions, along with their answer options, on small slips of paper" (Times of India, 29 October 2026). A 14th accused was added in October. On 29 October 2026, a Delhi fast-track court reserved its order on framing charges against all 14, due on 18 November.

The CBI's report on the NTA, as described by the Hindustan Times on 19 October 2026, found experts "had access to the final sets of questions", with "no frisking or metal-detector checks" at the confidential section, and CCTV kept for only 20 to 25 days. It said it had "not found any criminality on the part of any government officer posted in NTA".

The money machine: what students paid for a leaked NEET paper

Every price below is an allegation by investigators or a report of one. None has been tested at trial.

• 2024: the solved questions went to "candidates who had paid up around Rs 25-30 lakh for them, the CBI alleged" (ThePrint, 25 April 2025).
• 2026: Rajasthan's Special Operations Group said the "paper leak mafia" sold the paper disguised as a guess paper, with all 90 biology and 45 chemistry questions, "for Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh a copy" (Times of India, 13 May 2026).
• 2026: a paid WhatsApp group charged "beginning from around Rs 5,000" to join, the Indian Express reported. Officials suspected one seller bought the paper for Rs 10 lakh and resold it for Rs 15 lakh.
• 2026: the CBI alleges a Latur coaching founder paid Rs 5 lakh for chemistry questions.

The structure is a pyramid. A few people with access sell to coaching operators and middlemen, who resell through special classes and groups, and every resale widens the circle that can be traced. The 2026 money trail, according to the chargesheet as reported by NDTV, "shows that money was collected from parents of candidates in connection with the leaked questions/classes and moved through intermediaries." In other words, the payments that bought the paper are now evidence.

One report shows how little the buyer may get. The Economic Times, citing IANS sources, reported in May 2026 that a father allegedly paid nearly Rs 10 lakh for the paper and his son answered questions worth only 107 out of 720. Treat that as unconfirmed, but it fits the obvious problem: a leaked paper without the preparation to use it is worth very little.

What happened to the students who used leaked papers

The courts made the position clear in 2024. The Supreme Court ordered that "action shall be pursued against every student found to be involved in wrong doing at any stage, notwithstanding the completion of the counselling process", and that no such student "would be entitled to claim a vested right" to their seat.

The NTA followed through:

• By 23 June 2024 it had debarred 110 candidates from the 2024 exam, including 17 from Bihar centres after the police report (New Indian Express, 23 June 2024).
• By May 2025 it had debarred 42 candidates for three years and 9 for two years, with 215 more under review. The National Medical Commission told colleges to suspend 26 MBBS students who had already started the course, and 14 admissions were cancelled (The Hindu, 2 May 2025).
• In 2026, the NTA withheld the result of one candidate linked to an accused coaching operator and declared him ineligible for NEET-UG 2027. He denies using unfair means. Rajasthan police passed the CBI a list of about 150 students and about 70 parents who allegedly received the paper.

The MBBS students who solved the 2024 paper were arrested too. Seven alleged solvers were in custody by September 2024. A medical seat lost a year into the course is a worse outcome than a low rank, and a criminal case is worse again.

The law that now applies to paper leaks

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 came into force on 21 June 2024, after the 2024 exam. Its offences are cognisable and non-bailable, with three to five years in prison and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh for unfair means, and five to ten years with a fine of at least Rs 1 crore for organised paper leaks. The NTA is one of the bodies it covers.

After the 2026 cancellation, Parliament toughened it. The amendment passed in July 2026 and received assent on 31 July. According to PRS Legislative Research, it raises the penalty for individuals to five to ten years and a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh, and for organised crime to at least seven years and at least Rs 10 crore, with investigations due within two months and fast-track trials.

The 2026 accused were charged under the 2024 Act as it stood. Anyone buying a leaked paper for a future exam faces the tougher version.

Red flags: the leak sellers and the fake-leak sellers

After the 2026 cancellation, a second market appeared: people selling fake "RE-NEET" papers to panicked students. Ahmedabad cyber police busted Telegram channels with about Rs 1.5 crore in transactions and found "no actual NEET examination material or question papers" (New Indian Express, 15 June 2026). Telegram's service was restricted in India until 22 June, and its edit feature until 30 June, because sellers were faking pre-exam timestamps, according to The Week.

So a paper offer is one of two things. Either it is fake and you lose the money, or it is real and you join a criminal investigation. Watch for:

1. "Guess paper" sold for lakhs. A real guess paper is worth what a mock test costs. The 2026 leak travelled under that label.
2. Paid groups on WhatsApp or Telegram that promise questions before the exam. Joining fees and screenshots are the records investigators later collect.
3. "Special classes" days before the exam at a fee far above normal coaching, where questions are dictated. The CBI says that is how the 2026 questions were used.
4. Timestamps as proof. Sellers faked pre-exam timestamps to sell "proof" of earlier leaks.
5. A demand for your documents as security. One 2026 accused allegedly held candidates' original certificates and identity cards until they paid after the exam (The Hindu, 14 October 2026).
6. Anything about "setting" your centre. Both leaks were tied to particular centres and particular people. That is how they were traced.

If you receive leaked material, the 2026 case started with a whistleblower emailing the NTA.

The honest route: prepare for an exam that may be re-held

The 2026 cancellation taught a hard lesson to honest candidates too: be ready to sit the paper twice. The re-exam came seven weeks after the first. Candidates who had a plan, kept revising and kept taking timed mocks were in a better position than those who stopped on 3 May.

The NEET-UG guide sets out the format, the subject split and a week by week plan. Put your exam date into the free study plan tool on this page. It works back from the date and the hours you can study each week and tells you whether you are on track, and you can re-run it if the date moves. If you are already looking ahead to postgraduate entrance, the NEET-PG guide does the same.

If you want more structure, ExamTips Pro for NEET adds a week by week plan, the topics that carry the most marks and practice questions, for a one-time fee. Nobody can sell you the questions honestly. You can prepare well enough that you do not need them.