New Delhi/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The CBI on Friday said it has arrested a retired chemistry professor in Latur, whom it has identified as the main accused in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case.PV Kulkarni, who spent more than three decades in academia, was associated with the National Testing Agency (NTA) as part of the question paper setting panel. TOI had reported on Friday that the CBI was searching for those who had prepared the questions.Officials claimed that Kulkarni first attempted to sell the newspaper locally, but turned to a wider network after failing to convince buyers of its authenticity. “In the last week of April, Kulkarni, with the help of another accused named Manisha Waghmare, gathered students and conducted special coaching classes for them at his residence in Pune,” a CBI spokesperson said.Kulkarni reportedly set questions with options and correct answers during these special classes. “The questions were handwritten by the students in their notebooks and exactly matched the actual question paper of the examination held on May 3,” the CBI said.CBI sources said that the agency is now interrogating more people related to asking the questions.This leak is different from the leaks that surfaced earlier. The investigation into the first leak revealed people outside the main chain of access who were part of an organized gang and violated the integrity of the exam such as paper distribution at exam centers in the later stages.Coaching institutes have also been brought under the ambit of investigation. The CBI questioned the director of a Latur-based coaching center with units across Maharashtra. Officials conducted searches at his residence, seized his cellphone and issued a notice to the agency’s Pune office for further questioning.As earlier reported by TOI, the CBI has sought detailed information from the NTA about each stakeholder who had access to the question papers before it was sealed: the people who set the questions, the subject experts, and the professors and teachers on the panel who prepared the questions, besides details of the entire paper preparation process.Kulkarni is the eighth arrest in this case. Waghmare was earlier arrested by the CBI along with six others. Officials said Waghmare had received money from around 21 bank accounts before the examination held on May 3. She runs a beauty parlor in Pune and was acting as a mediator for co-accused Dhananjay Lokhande, who is a BAMS graduate and runs a consultancy in Pune.In New Delhi, special CBI judge Ajay Gupta sent Lokhande to six days’ police custody, with the CBI saying it was necessary to identify “the NTA officials involved in the paper leak”.