New Delhi, Oct. 19 -- As part of its probe into the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted a report pointing out procedural lapses in exam preparation at the National Testing Agency (NTA), including subject experts having access to the final set of question papers and shortcomings in CCTV coverage at the agency's office. In its report submitted late last month, CBI has also recommended measures to prevent such leaks in future, people familiar with the matter said. Its assessment report, sent to the Union ministry of education, mainly recommends systemic reforms and corrective measures modeled on transparency and security protocols. To be sure, the premier anti-corruption agency has not found any criminality on the part of any government officer posted in NTA. It has named three external subject experts -retired chemistry professor P V Kulkarni, botany teacher Manisha Mandhare, and a physics teacher Manisha Havaldar-as the source of the leak in the main charge sheet against 13 individuals filed on July 28. A supplementary charge sheet filed on Wednesday too does not name any NTA official. The CBI started its investigation into alleged irregularities and paper leak in the May 3 National Eligibility cum Entrance Test examination for undergraduate medical courses, which triggered nationwide protests. "After completing our investigations in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, we have sent a detailed report to the Centre outlining procedural lapses in the exam process and recommending systematic changes," said an officer, requesting anonymity. CBI in its report said that experts, including the three named in the charge sheet, had access to the final sets of questions, according to this officer. "In the process of setting questions for NEET-UG 2026, there is an item writing stage for every subject for which experts were called to prepare questions and their answer options. In the next step, some experts are called to work as moderators who select the questions for 4 sets to be prepared for NTA," the officer said. "Then a different set of subject experts called as vetters solved the question sets finalized by moderators. Then, the finalised question sets were translated into vernacular languages by subject experts. In the final step, the translated versions were back translated to English by subject experts to verify the accuracy of the translation and to ensure that no context is lost in translation," the officer explained. Some experts were involved in more than one stage, the officer pointed out. CBI has also flagged shortcomings in the CCTV surveillance at the NTA office at the NSIC building in Delhi's Okhla, where confidential work related to the exam papers was conducted, a second officer said. NTA has since shifted to a new office on Minto Road. CBI also found that experts involved in setting of paper and translation were provided blank sheets inside the confidential section for rough work. Kulkarni used these to note down, as small chits, all 135 chemistry questions and the answer options, according to CBI. "There were no frisking or metal-detector checks when experts entered or exited the confidential section of NTA. We have highlighted these shortcomings in our report," the officer added....