JEE Main Scam: A Russian allegedly hacked JEE Main software for cheating

A Russian man has been detained at Delhi airport in connection with the JEE main manipulation case. Mikhail Shargin, a Russian national, was detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation after he landed in Delhi on Monday.

The Joint Engineering Exam or JEE mains, which decides the future of thousands of Indian students was hacked last year, said the CBI in its statement.Central Bureau of Investigation also stated that it was done by a Russian named Mikhail Shargin in 2021. Shargin hacked into the software provided by IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The arrest was made after an investigation in which it was found out that some of the foreign nationals were involved in compromising many national exams, including JEE mains. The CBI alleged Mikhail Shargin to be the main hacker in a bid to manipulate the results of the JEE mains.

As per the information given by the CBI investigation, this is how the fraud panned out.

Mikhail Shargin allegedly interfered with the iLeaon software.This was the platform where JEE (Main)-2021 was conducted.
Shargin also helped the other accused in hacking the computer systems of suspect candidates during the examination. The exam was held only on control-restricted computers at designated centers.
Teachers who got remote access to the question papers of these suspects, sat in another location and solved the papers.
Three Affinity Education Pvt Ltd members, Siddharth Krishna, Vishwambhar Mani Tripathi, and Govind Varshney, have been charged with tampering with the JEE Mains exam.
According to PTI, they allegedly charge each candidate between Rs. 12 lakhs and Rs. 15 lakhs to facilitate admission to top NITs (National Institutes of Technology).
The Class 10 and 12 marksheets, user IDs, passwords, and post-dated cheques of the candidates were kept as security.
Once the candidates get admission to the universities, the accused will collect hefty commissions from the beneficiaries.

Approximately 20 students were accused of cheating by this method and are now banned from giving exams for three years.