India, June 23 -- Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday that "protectors turned predators" over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, adding that teachers assigned responsibilities by the National Testing Agency (NTA) failed to carry out their duties properly. He also held himself accountable for the recent suicides of several NEET candidates.

More than 2 million students seeking admission to medical courses took the re-examination on Sunday amid tight security measures, weeks after the NTA announced a re-test on May 15.

The re-test announcement came after the agency received an email on May 8, which claimed the paper had been leaked and pointed out similarities between a circulated guess paper and the question paper u...