The CBI on Saturday arrested a Pune-based botany teacher, who is allegedly another mastermind and a source of the leak of biology questions of the NEET-UG 2026 examination.The accused, Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, a senior botany teacher, was arrested in the national capital after interrogation by the CBI. Her arrest came a day after Prof PV Kulkarni and other accused were arrested in the case, officials said on Saturday. Kulkarni, a domain expert in chemistry from Latur, had for years served on panels involved in setting the NEET question paper.Mandhare too was involved in the NEET-UG examination process and appointed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as a botany expert. She had complete access to the botany and zoology question papers, the agency said.The CBI had so far apprehended nine accused as the investigation into the paper leak was continues, said the officials.The probe agency said Mandhare had mobilised NEET candidates in April 2026 through another accused, Manisha Waghmare, of Pune, who has already been arrested by the CBI.She conducted special coaching classes for candidates at her Pune residence and disclosed various questions from botany and zoology subjects and made the students note these in their notebooks.A majority of these questions tallied with the actual NEET-UG examination held on May 3, the agency mentioned.The CBI said in the last 24 hours, it had conducted searches at six locations across the country and seized several incriminating documents, laptops, bank statements and mobile phones. Detailed analysis of the seized items is going on.The CBI had registered a case over the paper leak on May 12 based on the written complaint by the Department of Higher Education, Union Ministry of Education.The probe agency said the nine accused had been arrested in the case from Delhi, Jaipur, Gurugram, Nashik, Pune and Ahliyanagar. Of these, five have already been produced before a court and remanded to seven-day police custody.Two accused, who were arrested on Friday, were produced before a court in Pune and shifted to Delhi after getting their transit remand.It further added that investigation is going on with the special teams and the investigation conducted so far has brought out the actual source of the leakage of chemistry and biology papers as well as the middlemen involved in mobilising the students who paid lakhs of rupees to attend the special coaching classes where the questions were leaked and discussed.The agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam. The NEET was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres.Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA across the country.According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractices was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the exam was held.