New Delhi, May 17 : A Delhi court on Sunday sent NEET paper leak accused Manisha Gurunath Mandhare to a 14-day custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, an NTA-appointed senior Botany teacher from Pune, is suspected to be the co-mastermind behind the leak of the Biology question paper. Chemistry professor P.V. Kulkarini is being considered the "kingpin" of the paper leak.

During the proceedings in the Rouse Avenue Court, the CBI told the bench that Manisha Mandhare was an expert in translating botany and zoology question papers.

"Manisha was in conspiracy with P.V. Kulkarni and Manisha Waghmare. She gave the question paper to another accused, Shubham. Simultaneous investigations are going on across the country. We need to take her to different parts of the country for the purpose of investigation," the CBI said.

The investigative agency also mentioned that Mandhare had access to the question paper.

Meanwhile, the defence stressed that the manner in which Mandhare was arrested is "illegal".

"She was arrested after sundown and then was brought to Delhi at 1 a.m.," the defence counsel said.

The court directed the defence counsel to move an application regarding this.

Additionally, the court allowed Mandhare to meet her counsel daily for 15 minutes.

According to the CBI statement, released on Saturday, Mandhare was involved in the NEET-UG 2026 Examination process and appointed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as an expert and had complete access to the Biology question paper.

In April 2026, she had mobilised prospective NEET examination candidates through Pune consultant Manisha Wagmare, arrested on May 14, and conducted special coaching classes for these students at her Pune residence, the statement said.

During these classes, she explained and disclosed various questions from Biology and made the students note down the same in their notebooks and also mark these in their textbooks, the statement said.

A majority of these questions tallied with the actual question paper of the NEET-UG 2026 examination held on May 3 and cancelled later, the probe agency said.

In the last 24 hours, the CBI conducted searches at six locations across the country and seized several incriminating documents, laptops, bank statements and mobile phones. Detailed analysis of the seized items is going on, an official said.

It may be recalled that CBI registered this case on May 12 based on the written complaint given by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India, pertaining to the alleged paper leak of NEET-UG 2026 Examination.

Immediately after registration of the case, special teams were formed, and searches were conducted at various locations across the country, and several suspects were picked up and interrogated.

So far, nine accused have been arrested in this case from Delhi, Jaipur, Gurugram, Nasik, Pune and Ahliyanagar. Out of these, five accused have already been produced before the court and taken into 7-day police custody remand for detailed interrogation.

Two other accused, who were arrested on Friday, were produced before a court in Pune and shifted to Delhi after taking transit remand.

Investigation is continuing with the special teams, and the investigation conducted so far has brought out the actual source of the leakage of Chemistry and Biology papers as well as the middlemen, the CBI said.

The middlemen were involved in mobilising the students who paid lakhs of rupees to attend the special coaching classes where the questions which would come in the NEET UG-2026 exam were dictated and discussed.

/IANS