A Russian national has been detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged role in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) paper leak case. The detained person has been identified as Mikhail Shargin.
According to the CBI, the accused had helped in tampering with the iLeon software, the platform used for conducting the JEE Mains examination.
The said accused was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, after he arrived in India from Almaty, Kazakhstan.
CBI said that during investigations, it came to light that some foreign nationals were involved in compromising many online examinations, including JEE (Mains). They had colluded with other accused persons.
According to the CBI, Shargin had allegedly tampered with the iLeon software, the platform on which the JEE (Mains) 2021 examination was conducted. The software was designed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The accused had helped other accused persons in hacking the computer systems of the suspect candidates during the examination.
A Look-Out Notice was issued against him by CBI.
According to the CBI, a case was registered on September 1, 2021, against a private company, its directors, three of its employees and other conduits, following allegations of irregularities in the JEE (Mains) exam for 2021.
It was alleged that the company and its directors were manipulating the online JEE (Mains) exam and facilitating certain students to secure admission in top NITs (National Institute of Technology) in exchange for huge amount of money.
The accused persons were allegedly solving the question papers for the applicants through remote access of their computers from a chosen examination centre in Sonepat, Haryana.
It was also reported that the accused used to obtain class 10 and 12 mark sheets, user IDs, passwords and post-dated cheques of aspiring students from across the country as securities against the illegal services provided. Once admission was secured, they used to collect the agreed amounts ranging between ₹ 12 and 15 lakh per candidate.