NEET-UG 2026 leak: CBI arrests Latur coaching institute’s owner as 10th accused

New Delhi: A Latur-based coaching institute’s director, Shivaraj Motegaonkar, was arrested by the CBI in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 10, an official statement said on Monday.

The CBI said that Motegaonkar owns the RCC Coaching Institute, which trains students for the NEET UG examination for entrance to medical colleges.

The RCC Coaching Institute has nine branches, with its main branch located in Maharashtra’s Latur, the probe agency said.

Motegaonkar is believed to be close to P.V. Kulkarni, Chemistry Lecturer, who is associated with NTA, and was earlier questioned by the CBI.

Searches conducted at the RCC Coaching institute and Motegaonkar’s residence resulted in the recovery of a Chemistry question bank which contained exactly the same questions that appeared in the now-cancelled NEET-UG 2026 exam held on May 3, the CBI said.

Since Sunday, the CBI has also conducted searches at five locations at various places and seized several incriminating documents, laptops, and mobile phones. Detailed analysis of the seized items is going on, said the statement.

The federal agency registered the paper leak case on May 12 based on the written complaint given by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India.

Immediately after registration of the case, special teams were formed, and searches were conducted at various locations across the country, and several suspects were picked up and interrogated, the CBI said.

So far, 10 accused have been arrested in this case from Delhi, Jaipur, Gurugram, Nasik, Pune, Latur, and Ahliyanagar.

The nine accused, arrested before Motegaonkar, have been produced in the court and sent to CBI custody for a thorough interrogation.

Motegaonkar was also presented before a court after his arrest, and the CBI is likely to seek his custody as well.

Investigation is continuing with the special teams, and the probe so far has brought out the actual source of the leakage of Chemistry and Biology papers, which were circulated before the exam, the CBI said.

The middlemen involved in mobilising students who paid lakhs of rupees to attend the special coaching classes where questions – like the ones which came in the NEET UG-2026 exam – have also been arrested, the CBI said.

IANS