On April 26, a full week before the NEET-UG 2026 examination, two brothers from Rajasthan's Jamwa Ramgarh allegedly walked away from a transaction in Gurugram with this year's medical entrance paper in hand. The price: Rs 30 lakh. The seller: a doctor whose identity is now at the centre of the CBI's investigation.

What followed was a methodical, multi-state distribution chain that eventually reached over 700 students across six states, and brought down one of India's most consequential examinations.

How the paper moved

After purchasing the paper from the Gurugram doctor, brothers Mangilal and Dinesh Biwal first passed it within their own family, one of them shared it with his son, who was preparing for NEET in Sikar, two and a half hours from Jamwa Ramgarh. Three days later, on April 29, the brothers allegedly began selling it to others.

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From there, the paper reached Rakesh Kumar Mandawariya, an MBBS counselling agent who operated outside coaching institutes in Sikar. Mandawariya allegedly purchased the paper and then sold it for Rs 30,000 to one of his contacts, a student from Sikar pursuing MBBS in Kerala.

The day before the exam, that student allegedly forwarded the paper to his father, a PG hostel operator in Sikar, with a message that has since become central to the investigation: "Papa, a friend from Sikar sent this to me. Please give it to the girls in your hostel. This is what will come in tomorrow's exam."

The father allegedly circulated it among the girls staying at his hostel. It was this act, and the subsequent matching of questions after the exam, that first brought the leak to light.

The Gurugram doctor and the Nashik connection

Investigators are now focused on the Gurugram doctor as a pivotal link in the chain. Rajasthan Police sources indicated to India Today that the paper may have originated at a printing press in Nashik before reaching the doctor through a "chain network." From him, it allegedly passed to the Biwal brothers and fanned out from there.

A man has since been detained in Nashik in connection with the alleged leak. Nashik Deputy Commissioner of Police Kirankumar Chauhan confirmed that a Rajasthan Police team would travel to the city to take custody of the individual, according to PTI.

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However, the Indian Medical Association's Gurugram president, Dr Rajesh Kataria, noted that no medical body had yet been contacted by any investigating agency regarding the alleged doctor from Gurugram.

The scale of distribution

In Sikar, students and coaching operators had set up WhatsApp and Telegram groups through which the paper circulated. Mandawariya, who was arrested from Dehradun, is alleged to have distributed the paper to around 700 students. The PDF spread widely and was eventually sold in printed form as well.

The paper's journey, according to sources, ran from the Nashik printing press through Haryana and Jamwa Ramgarh to Sikar, and from Sikar, it spread to Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Kerala, and Uttarakhand. In Haryana, a separate accused, Yash Yadav, has also been arrested for allegedly selling the paper.

Investigators also found a detail that deepened suspicions around the Biwal brothers: they had reportedly known nearly a month in advance that this year's paper would be leaked. One of the brothers, Dinesh, is also said to have links to a political party. Adding to the picture, four children from their extended family had cleared NEET the previous year.

Where things stand

The NEET-UG 2026 examination, held on May 3, was cancelled on Tuesday. The CBI has registered an FIR citing criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft, and destruction of evidence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examination Prevention of Unfair Means Act, 2024. Multiple special CBI teams have been dispatched to different locations, and the agency is also collecting material from the Rajasthan Police SOG.

The Rajasthan Police SOG had claimed that a chemistry guess paper circulated before the exam contained around 410 questions, of which roughly 120 appeared in the actual paper.

The NTA has said fresh examination dates will be announced within seven to ten days. Students across the country have responded with outrage, questioning the agency's competence and demanding that AIIMS-Delhi be handed responsibility for conducting the examination going forward.

(With inputs from Sharat Kumar)