4 min readNew DelhiMay 17, 2026 04:38 AM IST
With the CBI arresting two persons associated with the process of preparing the NEET-UG question paper, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is learnt to have flagged a list of names of question paper setters and translators who are “on the agency’s radar” to the CBI. The NTA is also learnt to be overhauling its existing list of question paper setters and translators ahead of the retest scheduled for June 21.
With the breach being traced to the first stage where the question paper originates — the exam process involves a sequence of steps, from setting of the question paper to the printing press and the exam centre — the NTA is now learnt to be “doing away” with a set of question paper setters and translators, whose names it has also submitted to the investigating agency.
NTA sources said the agency is trying to ensure a “foolproof” retest by replacing a set of people who were earlier associated with the process.
On Friday, the CBI arrested P V Kulkarni, a retired lecturer from Pune, identifying him as the “source of the NEET-UG 2026 examination paper leaks”. Another professor from Pune, Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, was arrested on Saturday.
NTA sources said Kulkarni was involved in setting questions for the Chemistry section, and in translation into Marathi. Sources said the NTA has several experts associated with the question paper setting process, and sometimes uses the same individual for setting and translation in order to minimise the number of people who have access to the questions.
Candidates can opt for NEET-UG question papers in one of 13 languages.
A CBI spokesperson on Saturday said Mandhare was appointed by the NTA as an expert and had access to the Botany and Zoology section.
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On paper — as recommended by an expert committee that was constituted in 2024 — the NTA has a protocol to ensure that question papers are set in a secure manner. As per the committee’s recommendations, this includes drawing subject experts from across the country to set question papers, including a chief paper setter among them. The paper setting team is to function in a room, as decided by the NTA, that is “acoustically insulated”, does “not contain transparent glass”, and does not have internet facilities. Paper setters are to leave personal belongings including cellphones and laptops outside, and the room is to include a “pantry area” with refreshments. The team’s questions are used to prepare more than one question paper.
As per the committee’s recommendations, “language experts must certify that no third party or press has seen…the marking scheme, number of questions, types of questions, or actual content of questions.”
In 2024, when the matter of a leak and a petition for cancellation of the NEET-UG exam reached the Supreme Court, the NTA had informed the court that experts are invited to its office to generate questions in a restricted area, where they seal their work daily.
Earlier this week, NTA Director General Abhishek Singh told The Indian Express that the committee’s recommendations on protocol had been followed.
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