NEET 2026 Cancelled: How a 'Guess Paper' from Rajasthan Brought Down India's Biggest Medical Entrance Exam

JAIPUR / NEW DELHI, May 14, 2026 — The story of how India's largest medical entrance examination was brought down begins, improbably, with a hostel owner in Sikar, Rajasthan, who got cold feet.

On the evening of May 3, 2026, as 22.79 lakh students were still wiping sweat from their brows after the NEET-UG exam, a man who ran a modest paying-guest accommodation for NEET aspirants walked into the Udyog Nagar police station. He carried a sheaf of papers and a guilty conscience. The papers, he told officers, were a "guess question bank" that had been circulating among students in the days before the exam. He had distributed them himself, thinking they were just another coaching centre's prediction. But when his students returned from the exam hall grinning about how many "guesses" had come true, he realised something was terribly wrong.

That tip-off would unravel, within nine days, into the biggest crisis in the history of the National Testing Agency. By May 12, the government had cancelled the entire examination. By May 13, the CBI had arrested five people across three states. And 22.79 lakh students — many of whom had spent two years in coaching institute hostels not unlike the one in Sikar — were told they would have to sit for the exam again, on a date nobody could name.

The Paper Trail: From Kerala to Rajasthan

The Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG), which took the hostel owner's complaint seriously, quickly discovered that the "guess paper" was anything but a guess. It contained approximately 120 questions with answers — around 90 from Biology and 30 from Chemistry — that matched the actual NEET-UG 2026 paper with disturbing precision. Investigators traced the document's origin to an MBBS student from Rajasthan's Sikar district who was studying in Kerala. This student, according to SOG Inspector General Ajay Pal Lamba, had received the material from a friend and forwarded it to his contacts back home, including the hostel owner.

From there, the paper moved through a network that investigators are still mapping. A person based in Gurugram, Haryana, allegedly acted as a conduit. The document was circulated through WhatsApp groups with names like "Private Mafia," protected by passwords. Printouts were made at a shop in Sikar. Coaching students in Jaipur got copies. The SOG, acting on rumours, questioned more than 150 candidates, parents, and facilitators across six districts — Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Alwar, Jaipur City, Jaipur Rural — before the trail led them to Nashik, Maharashtra, where local police detained another suspect on Rajasthan's inputs.

"The investigation revealed that the paper had allegedly reached certain individuals in Rajasthan before the commencement of the examination," a senior SOG official said. The findings were shared with the NTA, which referred the matter to central agencies on May 8. Four days later, with the Centre's approval, the exam was dead.

The Arrests: A Family Affair

The CBI, which took over the probe on May 12, moved fast. By the next day, they had arrested five people: Dr. Shubham Khairnar from Nashik, Maharashtra; and three members of a family from Jaipur — Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal, and Dinesh Biwal. A fifth arrest was made in Haryana. The agency conducted searches at multiple locations across the country, suggesting the network was more organised than a few students sharing study material.

What makes the case particularly galling is the profile of some accused. Dr. Shubham Khairnar is not a desperate student trying to cheat his way in — he is already a medical professional. The Biwal family members are not teenagers with pocket money; they are allegedly part of a facilitation network that turned a high-stakes entrance exam into a commodity. The CBI is now investigating whether this was a one-time leak or part of a larger racket that has operated across multiple examination cycles.

22 Lakh Students in Limbo

For the students, the cancellation is a body blow delivered with bureaucratic politeness. The NTA's official notice, posted on X on May 12, stated that the examination process "could not be allowed to stand" in view of the investigative findings. The agency promised a re-exam, a refund of fees, and new admit cards. What it could not promise was a date.

As of May 14, no re-exam schedule has been announced. Coaching institutes, drawing parallels with the 2024 NEET cancellation, speculate the re-test could happen in June — roughly six weeks after the original date. But this is guesswork, the very thing that caused this mess. Students who had booked train tickets home, scheduled family weddings around the exam, or mentally prepared for counselling in July are now staring at an empty calendar.

The NTA has clarified that no fresh registration is required — existing applications and centre choices remain valid. But "valid" is cold comfort when your future is on hold. The agency's helplines (011-40759000, 011-69227700) are reportedly jammed. Social media is flooded with memes, outrage, and fake re-exam dates. Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP national convener, has urged Gen-Z to "demand accountability," citing student uprisings in Nepal and Bangladesh as proof that young people can force change.

The Institution Under Fire

This is not the first time the NTA has faced a paper leak. In 2024, the NEET-UG exam was marred by similar allegations, leading to a Supreme Court-monitored investigation and a re-test for over 1,500 students. That the same agency could allow a repeat just two years later raises serious questions about its internal security protocols.

A petition has already been filed in the Supreme Court seeking the "replacement or fundamental restructuring" of the NTA. The petitioners argue that an agency that cannot secure its question papers has no business conducting examinations that determine the fate of millions. The government, for its part, has shown it is willing to act decisively — the CBI takeover was ordered within hours of the cancellation — but decisiveness after the fact is not the same as prevention.

The NEET-UG 2026 leak also exposes a deeper rot: the industrialisation of examination fraud. In towns like Sikar and Kota, which have become coaching hubs, the pressure to crack NEET has created a parallel economy of "guess papers," "question banks," and "leak networks." When a single exam determines access to medical colleges, and when those colleges are woefully short of seats, the incentive to cheat becomes overwhelming. The leak is not just a security failure; it is a symptom of a system that has turned education into a high-stakes casino.

What Happens Now

The CBI investigation will likely focus on three questions: Who had access to the question paper before May 3? How was it extracted from the NTA's secure system? And how long has this network been operating? The answers could lead to more arrests, possibly within the NTA's own printing or logistics chain.

For students, the immediate priority is to ignore the rumours and focus on preparation. The syllabus is unlikely to change. The re-exam, when announced, will probably follow the same pattern — a three-hour paper with 180 questions across Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The difference will be in the security: expect encrypted question papers, GPS-tracked transport, and possibly biometric verification at centres.

But no amount of technology can fix the anxiety of 22 lakh students who did nothing wrong. They prepared for years, gave the exam honestly, and are now being punished for someone else's crime. The hostel owner in Sikar, at least, had the courage to come forward. The system that created this mess is still waiting for someone to take responsibility.

Glossary

• NEET-UG: National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) — India's single entrance exam for MBBS, BDS, and AYUSH courses
• NTA: National Testing Agency — autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education that conducts entrance examinations
• SOG: Special Operations Group — Rajasthan Police's elite investigation unit
• CBI: Central Bureau of Investigation — India's premier investigating agency
• Guess Paper: In coaching parlance, a predicted question set; in this case, a euphemism for leaked material

NaukriSync Exam Angle

Polity & Governance: Expect questions on the constitutional and statutory basis of the NTA (established under the Societies Registration Act, not by an Act of Parliament), the role of the CBI in investigating exam fraud, and the legal remedies available to students. Current Affairs: Memorise the dates (May 3 exam, May 12 cancellation), the number of affected students (22.79 lakh), and the investigating agencies. Ethics: The case is a textbook example of administrative failure, conflict of interest in coaching institutions, and the moral hazard of high-stakes single-exam systems. Key memory hook: "Sikar hostel owner → Kerala MBBS student → Private Mafia WhatsApp group → 120 matching questions → May 12 cancellation."

Sources

• The Hindu — "NEET-UG 2026: Investigation finds MBBS student in Kerala forwarded guess paper to friends in Rajasthan" (May 13, 2026)
• Times of India — "CBI arrests five, including three from Jaipur family, in NEET paper leak case" (May 14, 2026)
• NTA Official Notice — Posted on X (@NTA_Exams) on May 12, 2026
• Rajasthan SOG — Official statements to press, May 8-13, 2026