New Delhi, May 22 -- The two National Testing Agency (NTA) subject experts arrested in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case were not only involved in setting questions, but also assigned to translate the questions into Marathi, giving them access to the final chemistry and biology sections of the examination, people familiar with the investigation said on Thursday. Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, a biology expert at Pune's Modern College arrested on May 16, translated 90 biology questions - 45 each from botany and zoology. PV Kulkarni, a retired chemistry lecturer from Dayanand Junior College arrested on May 15, translated 45 chemistry questions. Together, the two had access to all 135 questions from the two subjects through their translation work - in addition to whatever access they had as paper-setters. "The process of setting question papers in English and 12 regional languages involves two separate sets of translators - one translates the paper into regional languages and another independently translates it back into English to verify accuracy," a person aware of the probe explained. "Since both experts are Marathi speakers, they together had access to all final chemistry and biology questions," the person added. NTA conducts NEET-UG in 13 languages and the translation chain, which involves contractual staff, has now emerged as a vulnerability....