How a 'Fifa World Cup 2026' Whatsapp Group Exposed NEET Leak'

NEET paper leak accused allegedly created a WhatsApp group named "Fifa world cup 2026" to coordinate special Biology classes and discuss class schedules. A WhatsApp group of eight students, created in November last year and named " Fifa world cup 2026, led Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials to key National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) paper leak accused PV Kulkarni and Manisha Mandhare and exposed the modus operandi of a "paper leak conspiracy, the CBI has said. In its 20,000 page chargesheet submitted before a Delhi court earlier this month, the federal agency said that based on the statements of two NEET candidates, it came to light that Mandhare, who is based in Pune, created an eight-member WhatsApp group named "Fifa world cup 2026" to coordinate special Biology classes and to discuss class schedules, post-NEET paper evaluation and mark calculation within the group.

The agency said that Manisha Waghmare, a Pune-based beautician acting as a "facilitator" for all NEET subjects, helped add members to this online group. She offered students both online and offline Chemistry and Botany classes from subject experts contracted by the National Testing Agency ( NTA ) for translation and proofreading -- namely Kulkarni and Mandhare. She claimed these classes would "provide students with identical questions from the NEET-UG exam, the agency said.

Delving into how the classes proceeded, the chargesheet stated, "During Biology classes, accused Manisha Mandhare (A-1) instructed the students to mark specific paragraphs in their new XI and XII NCERT textbooks and also dictated questions to be written in the margins of their new textbooks". After the class, the students wrote the dictated questions in a fair notebook, which Mandhare then "corrected" as required, the agency claimed. The CBI stated that Mandhare conducted these "revision offline classes" for Biology at her residence in Ganga Osian, Pune, during two separate periods: November to December of 2025 and again from March to April of 2026. Investigation into the online group revealed that students arranged by Waghmare who attended Mandhare's classes also attended Chemistry expert PV Kulkarni's classes.

Kulkarni also held similar "special classes" at his house in Nanded City, Pune, in April this year, providing the identical Chemistry questions in two batches attended by nine students in Pune, the chargesheet stated. Further, the agency found a separate WhatsApp group named " NEET 2026, where Kulkarni shared class timings and links with students prior to the examination. "As per the statement of a group member, the Biology and Chemistry questions and accused PV Kulkarni (A-2), respectively, matched those in the actual NEET-UG 2026 examination... Based on this evidence, the federal agency arrested Kulkarni and Mandhare on May 15 and 16 respectively. "Manisha Mandhare, who was engaged as a subject expert for Botany/Zoology by NTA in connection with the NEET UG 2026 examination, had access to confidential examination material during various stages of the question paper preparation process.