Beautician emerges as key link in NEET UG paper leak case, CBI tells court

A 46 year old beautician from Pune has emerged as a “common link” in the CBI’s investigation into the NEET UG paper leak that led to the cancellation of the exam, The Indian Express reported. The agency alleges that Manisha Waghmare, who runs a beauty parlour in Sukhsagar Nagar, Pune, connected students seeking tuition with reputed teachers for a commission—and later used these contacts to distribute the leaked question paper.

Waghmare was arrested on May 14 and remanded in CBI custody for 10 days from May 16, along with another key accused, P V Kulkarni, a retired teacher. On Sunday, a Delhi court granted the CBI 14 days’ custody of a third accused, 57 year old Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, an expert on the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) NEET UG 2026 question setting panel, whom the agency has identified as one of the alleged “masterminds” in the case.

The CBI told the court that Mandhare, arrested on May 15 in Pune, allegedly leaked question papers to selected candidates in exchange for “substantial monetary gains.” As an NTA appointed expert, she reportedly had full access to both the Botany and Zoology question papers. The agency said she conspired with Waghmare and Kulkarni, “she provided examination-related questions/ content to selected students in consideration of substantial monetary benefits..”

Sources say Waghmare’s role is central to dismantling the racket. She allegedly learned that Mandhare was involved in setting the NEET UG questions, then “made a plan with her,” roped in Kulkarni, and began scouting candidates willing to pay for the leaked paper. The CBI’s probe has indicated that Waghmare was in touch with several students who had approached her looking for tuition teachers, and that she struck deals of about ₹10 lakh per student.

Of that amount, Waghmare, Mandhare, and Kulkarni are said to have agreed to share roughly ₹2.5 lakh to ₹3 lakh each among themselves. Waghmare allegedly arranged four or five students and then shared her plan with an old friend, Dhananjay Nivrutti Lokhande, who in turn approached Shubham Khairnar, who ran a counselling business in Nashik.

Khairnar, the first suspect arrested just hours after the NEET UG cancellation was announced last Tuesday, allegedly received the leaked papers from Lokhande. Lokhande is said to have obtained the PDFs from Waghmare and passed them on to Khairnar, who then shared them with Yash Yadav, a resident of Gurugram, and with others in Jaipur. Yadav was also taken into custody.

While seeking Mandhare’s 14 day custody, the CBI told the court that a larger, organised conspiracy was at play and that several accused remained to be identified and arrested. “The probe is at a very initial and crucial stage and the police custody of the accused has been sought in order to unearth the larger conspiracy and to arrest the other active members of this organised paper leak gang and for the recovery of all the relevant incriminating material,” the agency stated.

Mandhare’s lawyer opposed the remand, arguing that she was 57 years old, a lecturer, fully cooperating with the investigation, and that custody was unnecessary.