The cybercrime branch of Ahmedabad police on Monday arrested two members of an inter-state cyberfraud gang on the charge of taking money from students and parents on the false promise of providing them with the NEET re-examination question papers ahead of the June 21 test.
The NEET UG, which was held on May 3, was cancelled because of a paper leak.
The cybercrime branch said the accused in Gujarat used multiple Telegram channels and IDs to circulate posts and messages claiming that they could provide retest question papers. They also lured students preparing for the exam and their parents with various other false assurances. The accused have been identified as Sumer Singh, a resident of Jaipur, and Akash from Kota in Rajasthan.
“Under the pretext of providing the examination question paper and other confidential information, the accused obtained money from students and their parents. Investigation has revealed that the accused were using Telegram channels to carry out financial fraud by disseminating false information and misleading advertisements, thereby cheating students and their parents,” the cybercrime branch said in a statement.
During the probe, it came to light that the accused had created approximately eight Telegram channels related to the NEET, including “Raghav_singh_neet”.
“False, misleading and enticing advertisements, messages, and posts related to the examination were circulated through social media platforms and Telegram to attract students and their parents,” the cybercrime branch said.
The investigators have found that the accused had shared links to the eight Telegram channels with students and parents on the false claim that the question papers would be uploaded there.
The duo are also accused of running investment fraud operations through Telegram channels and groups such as “Trade With Karol” and “PANKAJ BHARDWAJ”. It was revealed that 12 complaints from different states were linked to six bank accounts of the accused.
The preliminary findings indicate that transactions worth nearly ₹1.5 crore were routed through various accounts operated by the gang. The investigators have further found that around 1,000 mobile numbers and Telegram accounts had been contacted in the last month and that the accused had created approximately 44 websites allegedly used for gaming, betting, gambling and cyber fraud activities.
“The accused collected details of various bank accounts used in gaming websites and routed fraudulently obtained money into such accounts to conceal the source and platform of the illicit funds,” the statement said.
The credited amount was transferred to bank accounts of different individuals through gaming platforms. The accused, using these bank accounts, withdrew the “fraudulent money and utilised them for their personal financial gain”, the cybercrime branch added.
It urged parents and students not to trust Telegram channels, social media posts or online advertisements that claim to provide question papers of competitive or government exams, promise changes in marks, or guarantee admissions.
Student arrested
The cybercrime branch has arrested a 19-year-old student from Bihar who has been accused of orchestrating a scheme to illegally divert NEET UG-2026 exam fee refunds meant for approximately 150 candidates into his own bank accounts directly from the National Testing Agency portal.
The suspect, Navinkumar Shankar Prasad Yadav, a BSc student from Gaya, allegedly gained unauthorised access to the NEET portal by obtaining the login details,
including application numbers and passwords, of multiple students.
