Abhishek Singh, Director General of the National Testing Agency, on Tuesday said all individuals involved in the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak would be “nabbed and jailed” as he defended the agency’s decision to cancel the examination and order a re-test.
Addressing the media in New Delhi, Singh assured students that the re-examination would be conducted fairly and without any additional financial burden on candidates.
Matter Handed Over To CBI
Singh confirmed that the case had been referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation after preliminary verification found that certain questions circulating on mobile phones before the exam matched the actual NEET-UG 2026 question paper.
“We have handed over the matter to CBI. All accused will be nabbed and jailed so that the future of students is not adversely impacted. We will conduct a re-exam for students and it will be done in a fair manner,” Singh said.
No Additional Fee For Re-Exam
The NTA Director General announced that candidates would neither have to pay any fresh examination fee nor lose the amount already paid for the cancelled examination.
“We have also decided that we will not charge any additional fee for the re-exam, and we will also refund the fee charged in the first exam,” he added.
The agency also clarified that all existing registration details, candidature information and exam centre preferences from the May 2026 cycle would remain valid for the fresh examination.
Whistleblower Alert Triggered Probe
Explaining how the alleged leak came to light, Singh said the agency received information from a whistleblower on the night of May 7.
“On the night of 7th May, we received information through a whistleblower that before the exams were conducted, the individual had received a WhatsApp message wherein some questions were matching the exact questions in the exam,” he said.
According to Singh, the NTA subsequently verified whether the alleged leaked PDF documents had been circulated before the May 3 examination.
“It was our job to verify those allegations and also to verify whether those PDFs were available to anyone before May 3 — the day of the exam. Upon checking, it was found that some questions matched our question paper. It was also found that on May 1 and 2, the PDF was available on the phones of a few people,” he stated.
‘Zero Tolerance Policy’ Invoked
Calling the development a direct violation of the agency’s “zero tolerance policy”, Singh said the integrity of the examination process had been compromised, making cancellation unavoidable.
“This was against our zero-tolerance policy. This would have impacted the future of students preparing hard for the exam. So, in their interest, we took this step,” he said.
Centre Cancels NEET-UG 2026
Earlier in the day, the Government of India officially cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 examination conducted on May 3 amid allegations of paper leak and examination irregularities.
The matter has now been handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation.
The NTA stated that the decision was taken after inputs from central agencies and findings shared by law enforcement authorities raised serious concerns over the credibility and integrity of the examination process.
Over 22 Lakh Students Affected
NEET-UG is the single national entrance examination for admission into MBBS, BDS and other undergraduate medical programmes across India.
The examination was conducted on May 3 in pen-and-paper mode across more than 5,400 centres in 551 cities across India and 14 cities abroad.
Around 22.79 lakh students had appeared for the examination.
Meanwhile, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan declined to comment on media questions regarding the cancellation and ongoing controversy surrounding the examination.
