New Delhi: The CBI has told a special court that a Latur-based coaching centre owner allegedly paid ₹5 lakh to obtain leaked chemistry questions for the NEET (UG) examination.

In its response to a bail application filed by Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, the agency alleged that he conspired with others to procure the questions in advance from P.V. Kulkarni, a member of the National Testing Agency panel that set the paper.

The agency claimed that Motegaonkar’s son attended Kulkarni’s coaching classes where the questions were shared. It further alleged that Motegaonkar prepared handwritten notes based on these questions.

According to the CBI, a mobile phone recovered from Motegaonkar contained 36 images, including duplicates, with 132 handwritten chemistry questions. Of these, 111 allegedly matched questions from the NTA’s master question sets for NEET (UG) 2026.

The agency stated that the notes were purportedly in Motegaonkar’s handwriting and that metadata analysis indicated the images were taken around 10 days before the May 3 examination.

“Incriminating notes of chemistry questions relating to NEET UG 2026, allegedly in the handwriting of …Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar was recovered from his mobile phone. The money allegedly paid for sourcing the leaked questions was recovered by CBI at the instance of co-accused Manoj Bhagwanrao Shirure,” the agency said.

Motegaonkar was arrested in the case, in which the CBI has so far arrested 13 persons, all of whom are in judicial custody.

The National Testing Agency had cancelled the NEET-UG examination held on May 3 following allegations of a paper leak and conducted a re-examination on June 21.