Pune/Nashik/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Two ayurveda practitioners, a beauty parlour owner and an engineering student were detained by Pune and Ahilyanagar police since Tuesday night based on inputs from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, prompting the cancellation of the May 3 exam. All four have been handed over to the CBI for further investigation.
Details of the Detentions
Senior officers from the Nashik and Ahilyanagar police cited CBI information and confirmed that one of the ayurveda practitioners, who ran a clinic at Wagholi in Pune city, received a hard copy of the NEET-UG paper. He couriered it to Shubham Khairnar, the 27-year-old man arrested from Nashik on Tuesday. Khairnar, in turn, clicked photos of the paper and forwarded those to his contact at Gurugram in Haryana for further circulation, the officers said.
The CBI was investigating how the ayurveda practitioner managed to procure the hard copy of the NEET-UG paper, they said.
A senior officer from the Ahilyanagar police said the suspect, who got the hard copy of paper, left Pune for his village near Rahuri in Ahilyanagar district, along with the other ayurveda practitioner, who ran a clinic at Junnar in rural Pune, soon after learning about Khairnar's arrest. "Based on the CBI's information and request, we detained them from the village near Rahuri late Tuesday night. The two are being questioned by the CBI personnel at the Ahilyanagar superintendent of police office," the officer said.
Beauty Parlour Owner and Engineering Student Detained
Pune commissioner of police (CP) Amitesh Kumar said, "The woman (46), who runs a beauty parlour, was detained from her house at Sukhsagarnagar in Bibvewadi around 2pm on Wednesday. A scrutiny of her bank account revealed deposits totalling Rs10 lakh made by 21 people during the exam period."
"The second-year computer science engineering student (22) was detained by the Pune crime branch from a paying guest facility in Pune's Manjari, where he has been staying in pursuit of his studies. All the four detained individuals were active on social media and were in contact with the other suspects," Kumar said.
Pune's deputy commissioner of police (crime) Vivek Masal said, "The engineering students' role and purpose of being in contact with other suspects via social media is being verified."
Masal said, "Two years ago, the beauty parlour owner had tried to secure a medical degree course seat for her daughter through NEET-UG but failed. She then came in contact with some people through an advertisement on social media offering admission to medical courses. She was cheated in this matter but continued to maintain contact with these people for making money through commission against counselling and scouting medical aspirants, and forwarding latter's details to them. We questioned her for 30 minutes before handing her over to the Pune CBI sleuths."
Masal said the two ayurveda practitioners had completed their studies from colleges outside Maharashtra and developed a network of contacts.
Related Inquiry in Latur
In a related development, the Latur police on Wednesday recorded the statements of two students and two people associated with a coaching institute, as part of an ongoing inquiry into the allegation that a mock test paper, distributed by the institute a day before the NEET-UG 2026 exam, contained 42 out of 45 chemistry paper questions "exactly matching" those in the May 3 exam.
Latur SP Amol Tambe told TOI on Wednesday that the inquiry was under way to ascertain the specific allegations mentioned in the complaint received from a parent. "We have recorded the statements of four people so far," he said.
Latur police officers said the inquiry was focused on verifying the authenticity of the mock test paper, identifying how it was circulated among students and examining whether the similarities with the actual examination paper were coincidental or indicated prior access to the confidential examination content.
