The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a Pune-based botany teacher in connection with the alleged paper leak in the 2026 undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, said the Union government on Saturday.The exam is conducted for admission to undergraduate medical courses in India. This year, more than 22 lakh candidates had appeared for the test.The botany teacher has been identified as Manisha Gurunath Mandhare. She was appointed as an expert by the National Testing Agency and had access to Botany and Zoology question papers as part of the examination process, said the Union Ministry of Education in a press release.She was arrested in Delhi. On Sunday, she was sent to 14 days of CBI custody, reported ANI. This came a day after the Union government said that the CBI had arrested the main accused in the paper leak case from Pune.The Centre identified the alleged “kingpin” as PV Kulkarni, a chemistry lecturer involved in the examination process on behalf of the National Testing Agency.Mandhare’s roleAccording to the Ministry of Education, Mandhare allegedly mobilised prospective NEET candidates through another accused, Manisha Waghmare, who was arrested on Thursday.Special coaching sessions were conducted at Mandhare’s home in Pune in April, “where several questions from Botany and Zoology were allegedly disclosed, discussed and dictated to students”, the ministry alleged.Candidates were reportedly instructed to write down the questions and mark them in textbooks, and many of the questions matched those in the examination conducted on May 3, it added. Mandhare holds a Master of Science degree in Botany and had been working at Pune’s Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce since 2002, according to The Indian Express. She was due to retire in seven months.According to Nivedita Ekbote, the principal of the college, Mandhare had been associated with the National Testing Agency for the past five years.Probe so farSo far, nine people have been arrested in the case from multiple cities, including Delhi, Jaipur, Gurugram, Nashik, Pune and Ahilyanagar. Out of these, five accused have been produced before court and remanded to police custody for interrogation, while two others were produced in Pune and later shifted to Delhi after transit remand.The test on May 3 was cancelled after the Rajasthan Special Operations Group began investigating allegations that a “guess paper” circulated before the examination contained questions closely matching the actual paper.The “guess paper” contained around 410 questions, of which about 120 matched the questions asked in the chemistry section, according to the Rajasthan Police.The National Testing Agency has announced that the re-exam for the 2026 NEET-UG will be held on June 21.At a press conference, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said there was a “breach” in the command chain for the May 3 test. “We accept it and take responsibility to improve it,” added Pradhan.He also announced that NEET-UG will be computer-based from next year.Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Sneha.Also read: Why the National Testing Agency continues to fail students in India