What Happened: NEET UG 2026 Paper Leaked, Exam Cancelled on May 12
On May 3, 2026, NEET-UG 2026 was held across 551 cities in India and 14 centres abroad. Approximately 22.79 lakh students had registered for the exam — aspirants who had spent years preparing, many of them on their second or third attempt. Before the exam began, Physics question papers were already circulating on messaging apps.
On May 12, the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the exam. A CBI probe was ordered. By May 22, CBI had arrested eleven people in connection with the leak. Among them: Manisha Sanjay Havaldar, an NTA-appointed Physics expert from Pune, arrested for leaking Physics questions to co-accused. A re-exam has been scheduled for June 21, 2026.
Sources: ETV Bharat, India TV News, Shiksha
The Government's Refund: What NTA Is Offering Back
Following the cancellation, NTA opened a refund portal from May 22 to May 27, 2026. The deadline is 11:50 PM on May 27 — no extension has been announced. Students must visit neet.nta.nic.in and submit their IFSC code, bank account number, and bank name to claim the refund.
Refund amounts by category are set government policy for the cancelled exam fee — General category students receive ₹1,700; OBC-NCL/EWS students receive ₹1,600; SC/ST/PwD students receive ₹1,000; overseas candidates receive ₹9,500.
CJP's position is straightforward: the refund covers the exam fee. It does not touch the 2–4 years of coaching that preceded the exam, the ₹1–2.5 lakh per year in coaching costs that many families took loans to finance, or the psychological cost of watching your preparation evaporate because someone inside the system sold the question paper.
Source: Careers360, IBTimes India
22.79 Lakh Students, Five Days to Claim: Who Is Affected
Every one of the 22.79 lakh registered candidates is affected. All must now prepare again for a June 21 re-exam with no additional financial support, no coaching reimbursement, and no acknowledgement from the government that the systemic failure cost them something the exam fee cannot measure.
The five-day claim window — May 22 to May 27, with no extension — is what CJP calls a "portal sprint." Students with internet access, a working bank account, and their IFSC ready can clear it in minutes. Those without — first-generation aspirants from rural areas, students whose accounts are in their parents' names, those preparing for the re-exam without time to track a portal deadline — are at highest risk of missing even this inadequate gesture.
Re-exam candidates are not required to pay any new registration fee for June 21. That much, at least, is confirmed.
"Three Years Gone in a Week": Student Voices
Divyansh Sharma, one of the affected students, said: "more than money, the biggest loss is time." Devadrita Dam described feeling "devastated we have to go through it all again." These are not outliers — they are the mainstream response from a generation that built its life plan around a single exam that the system it trusted then destroyed.
Pradeep Meghwal, 22, from Sikar in Rajasthan, had expected to score 650 out of 720. His family had taken a loan of ₹8–11 lakh to fund his education. He did not live to see the re-exam announced.
Sources: Outlook India, WION
Lives Lost: The Human Cost of Systemic Failure
Mental health helpline (India): iCall — 9152987821 (free, Mon–Sat 8am–10pm)
At least three student suicides have been reported across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Goa in connection with the NEET 2026 exam cancellation.
- Pradeep Meghwal, 22, Sikar/Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan: Died by suicide after the cancellation was announced. His family had taken a loan of ₹8–11 lakh to fund his education; he had expected 650 or more marks out of 720. His family staged a dharna demanding compensation. (Sources: WION, The Statesman)
- Ritik Mishra, 21, Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh: On his third attempt at NEET. Died by suicide following the cancellation. (Source: WION)
- A 17-year-old from South Goa and a 20-year-old from Delhi — both unnamed in reports — also died by suicide following the cancellation. (Source: Medical Dialogues)
These are not statistics. They are the human outcome of a system that placed the entire weight of a medical career on a single exam and then failed to protect that exam from people inside the system who sold it.
What the Government Said — and What It Did Not
The NTA Director General told a parliamentary committee that there was "no paper leak — only certain questions came out." The CBI's own arrests tell a different story: eleven people in custody, including an NTA-appointed expert, charged with leaking Physics questions before the exam.
The opposition — Congress, AAP, and others — has demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the dissolution of NTA. A Supreme Court petition has been filed seeking a CBI/SIT probe and NTA dissolution. These are the stated positions of opposition politicians and petitioners — they are not adjudicated findings of law, and CJP presents them as such.
What has not been disputed: the exam was cancelled, the leak happened, people inside the testing infrastructure are under arrest, and the government's response to 22.79 lakh students was a refund portal open for five days.
Sources: Business Today, The Print, ANI
CJP's Demand: Stop Treating Students Like Cockroaches
When NEET protesters gathered in Bengaluru, some wore "I Am Cockroach" t-shirts — the same symbol that defines this movement. Students dismissed, discarded, told their outrage is inconvenient. That is exactly the politics CJP was built to oppose.
CJP's demands on NEET 2026 are three: (1) Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan must resign; (2) the NTA must be dissolved; (3) the June 21 re-exam must be conducted under independent oversight — not by the same institution whose appointed expert is now in CBI custody. These are CJP's stated political demands, not legal conclusions.
The CJP website was taken down under IT Act Section 69A and the X account was withheld. The government noticed. The movement survived. That is what cockroaches do.
Sources: Deccan Herald, National Herald India
What You Must Do Before May 27 — and What Comes Next
- Claim your refund (if affected): Visit neet.nta.nic.in before May 27, 11:50 PM. Have IFSC code, bank account number, and bank name ready.
- Re-exam date: June 21, 2026. Free for all cancelled-exam candidates — no new registration fee.
- Share this page — send to every NEET student you know before the portal closes.
- Buy the Cockroach Digital Badge — put your name behind the demand for accountability.
- Join the movement free — no badge needed; just your name on the record.