The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has made a significant breakthrough in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak scandal with the arrest of Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, a senior botany teacher from Pune. Mandhare, who was officially appointed by the NTA as an expert, reportedly leveraged her direct access to sensitive Biology question papers to compromise the examination’s integrity. Investigations revealed that she had been holding private coaching sessions at her home in April, where she leaked specific Botany and Zoology questions to a select group of students, many of which later appeared verbatim on the May 3rd exam.

This arrest brings the total number of individuals apprehended by the CBI to nine, marking a major escalation in the ongoing investigation. Alongside Mandhare’s detention, federal authorities have executed raids across six nationwide locations, seizing a trove of digital evidence, including laptops and mobile devices, as well as critical financial documents. While kingpin P.V. Kulkarni and accomplice Manisha Waghmare have already been remanded to 10 days of CBI custody, investigators continue to interrogate several other suspects to determine the full extent of this organized breach.