&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "NEET re-exam: Rajasthan youth arrested for selling fake papers on Telegram; fresh scam surfaces despite app ban")
Just two days before nearly 23 lakh students are due to sit for the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, police in Rajasthan on Friday (Jun 19) arrested a man accused of selling fake question papers through Telegram. The accused, identified as Akash Chaudhary from Bhilwara's Patel Nagar area, was allegedly operating a Telegram channel that circulated fake NEET question papers and targeted anxious aspirants ahead of Sunday's examination.
The fresh scam has emerged despite India imposing a temporary ban on the Telegram app till June 22. In a statement issued on Tuesday (Jun 16), the NTA said authorities had imposed two temporary restrictions on Telegram in India following recommendations made by the agency. The first measure restricts access to Telegram in India until June 22, covering the day of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination and its immediate aftermath. The second requires the platform to disable its message-editing feature for already posted messages in India until June 30.
How did the suspect bypass Telegram ban?
According to police, the suspect, Chaudhary, used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to bypass restrictions and conceal his identity while running the channel. "Through the VPN app, he was able to open (Telegram)," said Deputy Superintendent of Police Nemi Chand Chaudhary.
The accused has been arrested by Pratap Nagar police and produced before a court, which remanded him to police custody until June 22. "The accused created a fake paper related to the NEET examination and was allegedly selling it through Telegram. A case has been registered and the investigation is ongoing. He had around 54 subscribers on his Telegram group. We will investigate everyone connected to the operation," the officer said.
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Police believe the case may be part of a wider network exploiting students ahead of the re-examination, which is being conducted following the cancellation of the original NEET-UG test over paper leak allegations.
Delhi High Court upholds Telegram temporary ban
The government's decision to temporarily ban Telegram received judicial backing on Friday (Jun 19) when the Delhi High Court upheld the temporary restriction.
Justice Tejas Karia observed that Telegram's architecture makes it particularly vulnerable to misuse. The court noted that features such as large public channels, mirror groups, cloud storage and editable messages allow fraudulent content to spread rapidly and reappear even after specific channels are removed.
The court also highlighted concerns that edited messages can be manipulated to create the false impression that examination questions were leaked before the test, fuelling panic among students and parents.
