On October 3, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was imprisoned for questioning a Russian national blamed for hacking into the software on which the (JEE) Joint Entrance Examination Main was conducted in 2021.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleges Mikhail Shargin meddled with the software operated and used for the entrance test for some of the top Indian engineering colleges and assisted other accused in hacking the computer systems of suspect candidates during the entrance test.

The CBI, which aimed for a five-day detain, was granted two days on October 4, and today Shargin is supposed to be presented before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.

Mikhail Shargin’s custody and questioning come as part of an investigation that commenced in September 2021. On September 1, 2021, the CBI and Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) in New Delhi reported a case based on information against the owners and counsellors of a private coaching firm Affinity Education – with offices in Noida, Pune, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh; another individual in Jharkhand and anonymous others.

The official statement by CBI says that throughout the investigation, they found some foreign nationals involved in compromising numerous online examinations, including JEE (Mains) conspiring with others blamed in the instant case.

Shargin, imprisoned in Delhi upon arrival from Almaty, Kazakhstan, was one of them. According to the reports, the statement by CBI on Mikhail Shargin does not state a number over 820 cheated on the JEE Main in 2021 using this passage to BTech admissions.

JEE Main Cheating

The 4th and final session of JEE Main entrance exam 2021 was carried out on August 26, 27, 31, and September 1 and 2. JEE Main exam is a computer-based test (CBT) conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and admission in BTech in top public engineering colleges, including the National Institutes of Technology (NIT), is via this exam only.

According to the FIR filed regarding JEE Main cheating on September 1, 2021, three directors of Affinity Education and two counsellors allegedly accumulated post-dated cheques for between Rs 10 lakh t0 rs 15 lakh from parents assured of admissions by exploiting the procedure of computer-based test (CBT).

The FIR says that the counsellors helped in soliciting and handling admission to leading NITs and other reputable engineering colleges by adopting deceitful men and dishonest approaches. In addition to the cheques, the team compiled the original Class 10 & Class 12 mark sheets of the candidates as security.

The September 2021 FIR named three directors of Affinity Education: Siddharth Krishna, Vishwambhar Mani Tripathi, and Govind Varshney; counsellors: Seema and Anjum Dawoodani; Ranjeet Singh Thakur from Jharkand and unidentified others. Thakur has been blamed for arranging for solvers to crack the JEE Main question paper.

According to the CBI source, the user ID password and admit cards of the candidates appearing for the examinations were gathered in advance in order to change the test venue to the preferred exam centre.

The 2021 FIR says the leading strategy was to position a solver sitting at a distant location to solve the questions shown on the computer terminal assigned to the candidate at the exam centre in connivance with the centre authorities. The supervisor of the centre with access to the computer network is also a part of the fraudulent act, and the solver acquires access to the system being utilized by the candidate by operating remote access software.

JEE Main cheating case: Sonipat centre

The 2021 FIR states that the coaching centre team had conspired with centre supervisors in Sonipat, Haryana. Two candidates from Mayur Vihar and Moti Nagar in Delhi allegedly contacted a director of Affinity Education- Siddharth Krishna, and had their JEE exam centre exchanged for one in Sonipat.

On October 3, 2021, CBI said the alleged remote access was offered from an examination centre in Sonipat.

Earlier the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) searched 19 locations in Delhi-NCR; Indore, Madhya Pradesh; Pune in Maharashtra; Bengaluru, Karnataka; and Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. Those raids surrendered 25 laptops, seven personal computers, and about 30 post-dated cheques with voluminously incriminating documents or devices, including mark sheets and PDCs of diverse students.