Renukai Career Center or RCC was a dream come true for Maharashtra students. Some called it a ‘doctor making factory’, others called it ‘Motegaonkar sir’s class’ but now there are wide cracks in the walls of that trust.
The CBI has arrested Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, the head of a famous coaching chain, for allegedly leaking the NEET-UG exam question paper 2026. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested him from his luxury residence in Latur’s Shivnagar area and remanded him in custody for nine days. This is the 10th arrest in the NEET scam.
Investigators said Motegaonkar was not just a teacher but was a very important member of a well-organized question paper leaking syndicate. The CBI claimed that the entire question paper of the exam was recovered from Motegaonkar’s mobile phone.
The exam was supposed to be held on May 3, but the question paper arrived 10 days earlier, on April 23! His phone has been seized for forensic examination. Investigators claim he circulated the questions and answers to multiple people.
Born in 1980, Shivraj Motegaonkar is a Gold Medalist in Chemistry. In 2003, he started RCC on a small scale in Latur, but in 19 years it grew into a huge empire. His coaching chain has branches in 8 cities of Maharashtra including Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad and Nandad.
They claim to have produced more than 15,000 doctors in the last 19 years. The institute, which charges an annual fee of Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 2.4 lakh, educates around 80,000 students. Motegaonkar presented himself as a ‘visionary educator’ or dream teacher, whose aim was to educate children even in the remotest corners of the village. But today he is accused of playing with the future of thousands of students.
The knot of rampant corruption broke first not in Latur, but in Sikar, Rajasthan, 800 km away. On May 3, just after the exam ended, a teacher emailed the NTA. He said that the night before the exam he received some PDFs on WhatsApp, which exactly matched the original question paper.
Meanwhile, a parent from Latur also alleged that the 42 questions in the RCC mock test are similar to the actual question paper of the NEET exam. Union Ministry of Education took action. On May 12, the CBI took over the investigation and announced the cancellation of the exam.
The investigation revealed a deep conspiracy. The NTA Question Paper Preparation Panel has two members. One of them is Manish Gurunath Mandhare, a botany teacher from Pune and the other is PV Kulkarni, a retired chemistry teacher from Latur, whom the CBI has called the ‘kingpin’ of the conspiracy. They leaked the question paper earlier through secret trainers.
So far the cycle has been found in five states including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi. Manisha Waghmare, a Pune-based beauty parlor owner, has emerged as one of the main characters in the distribution network.
