New Delhi: A 19-year-old man has been arrested in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district for allegedly selling fake NEET examination papers on Telegram through a virtual private network (VPN).
The arrest comes amid the recent ban on Telegram in India from 16-22 June in connection with the upcoming NEET re-examination. The temporary ban was issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 after a scam was unearthed where the NEET question paper was leaked.
According to Pratap Nagar Police Station SHO Sunil Tada, the police received intelligence inputs indicating that the accused was using Telegram to sell fake NEET papers. Acting on the information, investigators traced him through his phone number, which led them to his Aadhaar details and subsequently to his residence.
Upon reaching the house and examining his mobile phone, police found the 19-year-old was allegedly the administrator of a Telegram channel named ‘Paper Mafia’.
The police found the accused, who was aspiring to join the Air Force, would allegedly scan old question papers from textbooks and use artificial intelligence tools to generate question papers. These papers were then allegedly sold through the Telegram channel for Rs 4,000 each.
After the ban on Telegram, the use of VPN services has drawn attention. Some of the most widely used VPN services in India include NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark and Proton VPN.
On 18 June, David Peterson, CEO of Proton VPN, posted on X that “daily registrations from India jumped +120% on Wednesday (after a +150% spike in hourly registrations on Tuesday evening) as MeitY blocked Telegram for 150M Indian users over leaked exam questions.” Following the post, Peterson’s X account was withheld in India.
Police are now investigating the scale of the operation to determine how much money was earned through the alleged sale of fake examination papers.
Mrinalini Manda is a TPSJ alum currently interning with ThePrint
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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