JEE Main 2021: Delhi court sends Russian national to CBI custody for allegedly manipulating software during examination

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a Russian national, identified as Mikhail Shargin, for allegedly manipulating the software used in JEE Main 2021 examination.

A Delhi court has sent him to CBI custody for two days after he was arrested on Oct 3 on his arrival from Kazakhstan.

The outlander was taken from the Immigration Bureau of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, where he had arrived from Kazakhstan. Mikhail is possibly the mastermind behind the tampering of the engineering entrance examination.

According to a press statement by CBI, during investigation it was known that some foreigners compromised many online examinations, including JEE Main. The statement mentioned, “Role of one Russian national was revealed who had allegedly tampered with the iLeon software (the platform on which the JEE(Main)-2021 examination was conducted) and that he helped other accused in hacking the computer systems of suspect candidates during the examination.”

Central agencies alerted CBI when the foreign national arrived at the airport, according to sources.

Reportdly, Mikhail had helped over 800 candidates cheat in the exam.

As per reports, in September 2021, the investigating agency had filed a case against Affinity Education Pvt Ltd and its three directors, Siddharth Krishna, Vishwambhar Mani Tripathi and Govind Varshney, along with other employees for allegedly influencing the examination.

The three directors, in conspiracy with other associates and touts, allegedly making it easy for aspirants to get admission into the top National Institutes of Technology (NITs) by solving their papers in exchange of a very high amount of money through remote access from an examination centre in Haryana's Sonepat.