Centre has restricted access to the Telegram platform in India till June 22 to protect the integrity of the re-test of NEET (UG) examinations on June 21.
The directions are issued by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). A direction requiring Telegram to disable, in India, the message-editing feature in respect of messages already posted, for a defined period ending June 30 has also been issued. National Testing Agency (NTA) said it would address the specific structural feature through which the platform has been used to fabricate after-the-event “paper leak” evidence in respect of national examinations.
Telegram permits a channel administrator to edit the content of a previously posted message – including the substitution of attached files such as PDFs – while the original send-time stamp is retained. “This capability has been used, in respect of multiple recent examinations, to fabricate after-the-event “paper leak” artefacts: a channel administrator edits an older, innocuous message to insert the actual question paper after the examination has been conducted, and the resulting chat is then circulated as purported “evidence” that the paper was in circulation before the examination. The MeitY direction closes this avenue of fabrication for the post-examination window in which such artefacts have historically been deployed,” NTA said.
NTA said the measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination.
Acting on inputs received continuously from NTA, from State law-enforcement agencies including the police forces of Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and from its own continuous monitoring of public channels and platforms, has secured the prompt take-down of a substantial number of Telegram channels, groups and bots whose names and content openly advertised their ‘fraudulent and misleading purpose’.
“The directions are a measure of last resort, taken only after intermediate remedies, including the take-down action coordinated by Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, had been pursued and had not produced, at the platform level, the response required to protect candidates in the runup to the examination,” NTA said.
In the last few weeks, several Telegram channels were operating under names that themselves advertised their purpose – “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia”, “REE NEET MAFIAA” and similar formulations – demanded sums ranging from a few thousand to several lakhs of rupees from candidates and their families, in exchange for purported access to the re-examination paper. NTA stated that there is no such paper available outside the secured examination chain.
The Bihar Police Economic Offences Unit issued a formal public advisory on June 9, warning candidates against fraudulent claims of pre-examination access to the paper circulated through Telegram and other platforms.
The Ahmedabad City Cyber Crime Branch arrested members of an inter-State cyber fraud gang found to be operating eight Telegram channels in furtherance of the same modus operandi, with documented transactions of approximately Rs 1.5 crore routed through fraudulent bank accounts and approximately one thousand mobile numbers contacted in a single month. Investigations are in progress in multiple other States.
