Overview
- Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch arrested two Rajasthan men for running Telegram channels that falsely promised RE‑NEET question papers and collected payments from students and parents, and separate teams arrested suspects in Bihar and Muzaffarpur in linked frauds.
- Investigators traced roughly Rs 1.5 crore in transactions, contacted about 1,000 mobile numbers and identified some 44 websites tied to the Telegram network, while earlier enquiries led New Delhi police to a labourer who admitted lending his account to route at least Rs 5 lakh.
- Police said a 19‑year‑old from Bihar tried to hijack NEET candidate portal accounts to change bank details and divert refunds after accessing weakly protected profiles and that he targeted about 350 accounts and accessed roughly 150 of them.
- Officials found no genuine NEET papers with the Telegram suspects and said the frauds used QR payments, gaming‑site accounts, third‑party bank accounts and local ‘mules’ to launder money before withdrawals.
- Authorities have frozen and traced financial leads, tightened NEET portal security with two‑step authentication and Aadhaar/OTP checks, and warned students to use strong passwords and rely only on official NTA channels as investigations continue ahead of the June 21 re‑exam.