Russian hacker caught from IGI Airport

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday questioned an accused in an on-going investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities being committed in the JEE (Mains) Exams 2021, the probe agency said.
The accused, identified as Mikhail Shargin, was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at IGI Airport, Delhi while arriving in India from Almaty, Kazakhstan. A Look Out Circular was opened against him, CBI in a statement said.
During investigation, it came to light that some foreign nationals were allegedly involved in compromising many online examinations including JEE (Mains) colluding with other accused in the instant case. 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. Therefore, a Look Out Circular was opened against the said Russian National, it stated.
A case was registered on September 1, 2021 against a private company and others including its directors and three employees, private persons(conduits) on the allegations of irregularities being committed in the ongoing JEE (Mains) Exams 2021 by a private educational institution, its directors, their touts/associates and staff posted at the examination centre and other unknown persons, the statement said.
It was further alleged that the said company and its directors were manipulating the online examination of JEE (Mains) and facilitating aspiring students to get admission in top NITs in consideration of huge amount by solving the question paper of the applicant through remote access from a chosen examination centre in Sonepat(Haryana), it stated.
It was also alleged that the accused used to obtain 10th and 12th mark sheets, the 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 amounts ranging from 12-15 lakh per candidate, it added.
Searches were earlier conducted on September 2, 2021 at 19 places including at Delhi and NCR, Pune, Jamshedpur, Indore and Bangalore which led to recovery of 25 Laptops, 7 PCs, around 30 Post-Dated Cheques along with voluminous incriminating documents/ devices including PDC’s mark sheet of different students, it added. (UNI)