On July 21st, the Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, along with several opposition leaders, launched a massive protest against the NEET UG question paper leak right in front of the Prime Minister’s residence. Their main demand was the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Later, when Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned from his post, Congress considered it a major success. Following Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, Rahul Gandhi has now begun calling for the resignations of Home Minister Amit Shah and then Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While the Congress and Rahul Gandhi are delighted, the CBI’s investigation report into the NEET UG question paper leak has revealed several revelations that could soon embarrass Congress.
This first CBI chargesheet names a total of 13 accused, with the following key points and political connections:
Congress Connection: The CBI alleges in the chargesheet that Shivraj Motengar, the operator of the Latur-based RCC Coaching Institute, paid ₹5 lakh to obtain handwritten chemistry questions before the exam. 136 questions were recovered from his phone, 111 of which matched the NTA’s master question paper. This accused’s connection to the election campaign of local Congress leader and MLA Amit Deshmukh is being seen as an opposition or Congress connection.
Three NTA Subject Experts Involved: According to the chargesheet, three subject experts contracted by the National Testing Agency (NTA)—Manisha Mandare (Biology), Prahlad Vitthal Rao Kulkarni (Chemistry), and Manisha Sanjay Havaldar (Physics)—abused their official positions in the conspiracy to leak the paper.
Coaching and middlemen nexus: The CBI report states that these paper setters directly leaked the leaked questions to coaching networks and middlemen (such as Tejas Harshadkumar Shah of APMA Coaching, Pune), who then distributed them to students.
Financial transactions: Several bank accounts, lockers, and demat accounts of the accused have been frozen.
The CBI has informed the court that it has traced the entire chain from the source of the UG NEET question paper leak to the beneficiary students, although forensic analysis and further investigation are still ongoing.