The Delhi Police have arrested three people for allegedly running a cyber racket that copied and sold copyrighted UPSC coaching material through Telegram channels, officials said on Tuesday.
The case was registered after Sunil Kumar, director of a UPSC coaching platform, alleged that more than 2,400 educational videos from his app were copied and sold online without permission. The platform, launched three years ago, has over four lakh students and more than 2,500 paid and free videos.
The Police said the alleged piracy came to light on March 10, when the complainant found that a large portion of the copyrighted content was being circulated on Telegram, causing financial and reputational losses.
A team from the Cyber Police Station, North district, traced several Telegram accounts and mobile numbers allegedly used to conceal the accused’s identities. Some of the numbers were registered in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, police said.
Technical surveillance led to the arrest of Yuvraj Singh (21) from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, on June 5. The police said he admitted to using a bot to extract study material and selling it through Telegram, with payments received in his bank accounts.
Further investigation led to the arrest of Niranjan Kumar Mandal (23) and Shubham Kumar Pandey (28) from Faridabad, Haryana, on June 8. The police said Mandal developed the extraction bot, while Pandey provided logistical and internet support.
Investigators found bank accounts and digital wallets linked to transactions worth around Rs 35 lakh, indicating profits from the alleged sale of pirated educational content.
The police recovered four mobile phones, a laptop, four SIM cards, two passbooks, a debit card and a Wi-Fi router. Further investigation is underway to identify other members of the network.
