NEET paper leak case: Accused Shubham Khairnar sent to judicial custody till June 6

A Delhi court on Sunday sent accused Shubham Khairnar to judicial custody till June 6 in connection with the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case.PTI reports that special Judge Ruchi Aggarwal has allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea seeking Khairnar’s judicial custody.Earlier, on May 14, the court had sent Khairnar and four others to seven days of CBI custody, observing that the allegations pointed towards the involvement of an “organised gang” engaged in leaking and circulating confidential examination papers for monetary gain.The other accused include Dinesh Biwal, his brother Mangilal Biwal, Mangilal’s son Vikas Biwal — all residents of Jamwa-Ramgarh in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district — and Yash Yadav from Gurgaon.Who is Shubham Khairnar?Shubham Khairnar, a 30-year-old resident of Nandgaon in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, was detained earlier this week by Nashik Police in connection with the alleged paper leak.He was picked up by the Nashik crime branch’s Unit 2 from the city’s Indiranagar area following a request from the Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group (SOG), which was initially probing the matter.NEET-UG paper leak case explainedThe NEET-UG 2026 examination was cancelled amid allegations of a paper leak after investigators found evidence suggesting that a so-called “guess paper” had been circulated among aspirants weeks before the exam.According to investigators, the document allegedly contained around 410 questions, many of which closely matched the actual paper held on May 3. Officials claimed that nearly 120 Chemistry questions were identical to those asked in the examination.The CBI has registered an FIR under charges related to criminal conspiracy, cheating, breach of trust and provisions of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act.Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has announced that the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination will be conducted on June 21.