Solapur academy owner arrested in TET paper leak case

Police identified the accused as Prakash Pawar, who was allegedly a link between three men initially arrested in the case and prospective buyers of the leaked papers in Maharashtra

THANE: A Solapur-based academy owner was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) paper leak case, taking the total number of arrested accused to 16.

The 2026 TET paper leak came to light on June 27, when the Bhiwandi police, acting on intelligence, raided a location in Kongaon village, about 5 km from Bhiwandi city, and seized copies of the leaked question papers. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo)

Police identified the accused as Prakash Pawar, who was allegedly a link between three men initially arrested in the case and prospective buyers of the leaked papers in Maharashtra. The three men were arrested before they could sell him the papers.

According to the police, Pawar’s role was to identify students and job aspirants in Maharashtra who would be willing to pay for the leaked papers.

Pawar, the only accused arrested so far from Maharashtra, is an arts graduate and has been running an academy in Solapur since 2012, police said. The academy trains candidates for Group D positions in government organisations, as well as Army recruitment and Maharashtra Police constable examinations.

Assistant commissioner of police Sachin Sangle, a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case, told HT that the investigation led the team to Pawar after it found original documents belonging to candidates during a house search in Delhi.

The 2026 TET paper leak came to light on June 27, when the Bhiwandi police, acting on intelligence, raided a location in Kongaon village, about 5 km from Bhiwandi city, and seized copies of the leaked question papers. The accused—Akash Kumar, 30, Rajiv Shah, 45, and Dhiraj Kumar, 28—were allegedly involved in negotiating with potential buyers of the leaked papers.

Subsequent verification with the Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE) confirmed that the seized papers matched the actual question paper prepared for the TET examination scheduled to be held on June 28 at 1,028 examination centres. The state government subsequently postponed the examination, which was to be taken by more than 600,000 candidates.

Bijender Gupta, the alleged mastermind behind the leak, was arrested by the SIT on July 25 following an extensive search across Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Bihar. He is suspected of masterminding the leak of at least 20 competitive and professional examinations conducted in several states, according to the SIT. He had been arrested in some of these cases but was later released on bail, allowing him to allegedly resume his illegal activities. His wife, Suman Gupta, has been arrested for allegedly providing financial assistance and transferring funds to other accused.

Later, on July 28, another absconding accused, Sonu Kumar, surrendered before the Bhiwandi court. Kumar was an employee at the printing press in Agra, from which the papers were leaked.