JEE Main Scam: Russian man accused of hacking, CBI probe into irregularities; What we know so far

NEW DELHI: The largest national entrance test for engineering, Join Entrance Examination (JEE Main) was embroiled in controversies last year after alleged irregularities in the JEE Main 2021 exam. In a latest development, the Delhi court has on Tuesday sent a Russian national, arrested for alleged manipulation of JEE Main exam last year, to two days' CBI custody.

The accused, Mikhail Shargin, has been sent to CBI custody till October 6 after the agency requested for his remand to unravel the conspiracy.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) held the JEE Main exam last year in four sessions due to Covid-19 pandemic in February, March, July, August. JEE Mains is conducted every year for admission to engineering courses in 23 IITs, 31 NITs, IIEST Shibpur, 26 IIITs and 29 GFTIS.

The Central Board of Investigation (CBI) arrested seven accused in a case related to alleged manipulation in the JEE Main 2021 session 4 conducted on September 2 last year.

JEE Main irregularities

The CBI had also registered an FIR against Affinity Education Pvt Ltd and its directors, Siddharth Krishna, Vishambhar Mani Tripathi and Govind Varshney.

The NTA which faced a barrage of criticism had said that it is conducting a parallel investigation covering hundreds of candidates who showed a sudden jump from 50 percentile in one phase to over 90 percentile in the others.

Along with the JEE Main results, the NTA also debarred 20 candidates for three years from appearing in the JEE engineering entrance exam.

With a promise of assured admission into the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), the private coaching institute took Rs 15 lakhs in exchange for someone else to take their exam. The coaching institute was facilitating a scam by solving the candidates’ JEE Main 2021 question paper through remote access from a test centre in Haryana’s Sonipat.

During investigation, it came to light that some foreign nationals were involved in compromising many online examinations, including JEE Mains, colluding with other accused in the case.

The accused used to obtain Class 10 and 12 mark sheets, user IDs, passwords, and post dated cheques of aspiring students in different parts of the country as security and once admission was done, they used to collect heavy amount ranging from Rs 12-15 lakh per candidate, the PTI reported.

JEE Main 2022

This year too, the NTA faced criticism after several students faced technical glitches in the first session of JEE Main 2022. Unlike last year, the NTA held JEE exam 2022 in two sessions. Following several technical problems such as server issues, questions not loading, candidates filed a petition for another chance to appear. A Supreme Court bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and JB Pardiwala directed the NTA to permit 15 candidates to appear in the additional session scheduled on July 30, 2022.