NEW DELHI: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has demanded that the National Testing Agency (NTA) be dissolved and converted into a national technical testing commission following the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) chargesheet in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case.CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said the new body should have permanent staff and a system for proper auditing of every examination it conducts.“I just came to know that CBI has filed a chargesheet in the NEET 2026 case which involves a lot of NTA officers,” Ranka said.He also demanded a thorough investigation into all paper leaks reported in the country over the past few years, including the NEET-UG 2024 and NEET-UG 2025 cases, and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.Ranka said the government should address what he described as structural problems affecting the country’s examination system, including examination infrastructure and vendors involved in conducting exams.“It is imperative that the government takes steps to solve these structural issues that are plaguing the systems of this country, not just NTA but the entire exam system,” he said.“The exam infrastructure which includes the vendors have to be audited properly and it has to be made sure that the country doesn’t see any more paper leaks,” he added.What does the CBI chargesheet allege?The CBI has alleged that the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak was part of a coordinated, multi-state conspiracy in which NTA-appointed subject experts allegedly accessed confidential examination papers and passed them on to middlemen and coaching operators for money.In a chargesheet filed before the special CBI court at Delhi’s Rouse Avenue, the agency named 13 accused, including three NTA-appointed subject experts: Botany specialist Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, Chemistry expert Prahlad Vithalrao Kulkarni and Physics expert Manisha Sanjay Havaldar.According to the CBI, the leaked questions were circulated through a network of intermediaries before allegedly reaching candidates who paid for access to them.The accused have been booked under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024.The agency alleged that forensic examination of seized mobile phones, pen drives and other electronic devices recovered PDF and image files containing NEET-UG 2026 questions.Investigators said the files were exchanged through Telegram, WhatsApp and other messaging platforms several days before the examination.The chargesheet names Tejas Shah, Shivraj Motegaonkar, Dr Manoj Shirure, Manisha Sanjay Waghmare, Dhananjay Lokhande, Shubham Khairnar, Yash Yadav, Mangilal Biwal, Dinesh Biwal and Vikas Biwal in addition to the three NTA experts.The CBI has alleged that the accused played different roles in sourcing, circulating and distributing the leaked questions and handling financial transactions.The agency’s investigation also included statements from candidates and their family members.In one instance, the CBI alleged that a candidate and her father were offered access to the NEET-UG 2026 question paper for Rs 4 lakh, along with coaching support and offline revision classes conducted by one of the NTA subject experts.The CBI said forensic evidence, chat records, recovered documents and witness statements support its allegations of criminal conspiracy, abuse of official position by public servants and illegal circulation of confidential examination material before the NEET-UG 2026 examination.
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