 Director General Abhishek Singh said the decision was taken){kind=link}
NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said the NEET UG 2026 exam was cancelled after evidence showed questions from a leaked PDF matched the actual paper.
May 13, 2026: A day after the cancellation of NEET UG 2026, National Testing Agency (NTA) Director General Abhishek Singh said the decision was taken after investigators found that several questions from a leaked “guess paper” matched the actual examination held on May 3. Singh, who joined the NTA in April, said the agency adopted a “zero-error, zero-tolerance” policy and cancelled the exam after determining that the integrity of the test had been compromised. The matter has now been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a detailed probe.
According to Singh, the NTA examined whether the leaked PDF was circulating before the exam and whether questions from it appeared in the actual paper. He said central agencies confirmed that some questions did overlap, forcing the agency to scrap the exam to protect fairness for genuine students. Singh described the move as “short-term pain for long-term reform” and stressed that strict action would be taken against anyone found responsible, whether inside or outside the NTA.
The NTA chief also said the agency is working to implement recommendations made by the Radhakrishnan committee formed after the 2024 NEET controversy. He confirmed that contractual staff handling sensitive examination work would gradually be replaced with permanent personnel within six to nine months. Meanwhile, the Rajasthan SOG and other state agencies will coordinate with the CBI as the nationwide investigation into the alleged paper leak network continues.