Maharashtra TET Paper Leak 2026: How Question Papers Were Smuggled Out Inside Shoes

A shocking investigation into Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026 Paper leak has made a shocking revelations how questions papers that were supposed to be confidential were leaked out in printing press in Agra by hiding the copies inside the shoes. This case has shown how a major security breach is happening in the examination process and has forced Maharashtra government to think again about the security and safety of exams.

How the Question Papers Were Leaked

The TET exam held in Maharashtra on 28 June and more than 6 lakh candidates across 1,028 examination centres took participation in the exam. The question paper was printed at Mahim Patran Pvt Ltd in Agra, the identity of the printing management was kept secret under the state's protocol with only Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE) chief coordinating knowing.

According to investigation being held in Thane City Police investigation, the leak happened in between 15 June to 17 June while the papers were printing. The Police said that printing press employee Babulal Kushwahay gave one copy of each question paper to one of his co-worker Nareshkumar Mahore.

The interesting and shocking revelation came that Mahore hid the question papers copies inside the sole of his shoes before crossing the security. Although, employees were checked before leaving the premises, however the security failed to check their shoes which helped Mahore to take papers out.

The leak were compromised with two papers with their two sets for each, and police said that all the four sets were leaked during the phase when the papers were printing in Agra. According to police, the accused were given 8000 Rs each and they were also promised to get land in return for their role in leak.

Mastermind Allegedly Used Printing Press Network

The Police have identified Bijendra Gupta, the mastermind behind the paper leak, who has been a former coaching institute teacher from Bhopal. However, police has failed to arrest Bijendra Gupta. According to police, Gupta made a contact network inside the printing presses that gives important papers instead of giving specific papers. Whenever any big important papers are being printed in the presses, he asks his insiders to get the copies of them. Then he sells them to buyers through coaching institutes.

Police has also said that he was always in contact with another accused who is absconding Sonukumar Kishanlal and has always made transactions through UPI. The transactions were made to fund their expenses in the paper leaks.

Kushwahay was responsible for packing the package of printed papers for Maharashtra allegedly passed the copies to Mahore, who made sure to get them out from the presses.

Arrests Made as Investigation Expands

The paper leak information came out on 26 June when Thane Police got a tip of that some people are selling the Maharashtra TET question papers in Bhiwandi. Responding on the tip, Police conducted a raid and checked with education authorities that the papers they collected are actual papers or not.

In the initial investigation, Rajiv Kumar, Aakash Kumar and Dheeraj Singh were arrested, and then they follow the trace network to Agra with printing press employees Nareshkumar Mahore and Babulal Kushwahay with their former employee Sanjay Kumar Sharma.

Police also find something shocking that CCTV Cameras were not working in printing presses during the time when paper got leak. Police said if cameras were working it would have been a good help for them to find who were involved in the printing press company.

According to the police, the papers were sold at 80,000 Rs each in the coaching institute network in Maharashtra. The paper went through multiple mediaters, also police said that the papers were not spread on social media but it was distributed physically.

Maharashtra Government Plans Examination Reforms

According to the police, Gupta has been repeated offender and he has earlier been arrested in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha for exam paper leaks. The police said he was linked to 2023 Odisha Joint Entrance Paper Leak as well, his wife Suman Kumar's arrest helped him last time to save himself from the arrest.

After these incidents, Maharashtra government has appointed Chief Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal to recommend reforms to strength Maharashtra's examination system.