New Delhi, Jun 16 (PTI): The government on Tuesday temporarily restricted access to the Telegram messaging app ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, with the National Testing Agency (NTA) saying the measure is aimed at tackling cheating rackets and misinformation.

NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said the restriction on Telegram till June 22 is part of efforts to ensure that the June 21 re-test is conducted without malpractice.

"We will not let anything go wrong. We will take all possible actions to ensure that the examination is conducted without any malpractice," Singh told PTI, when asked about the move.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov criticised the restriction on the messaging app in India, saying, "Banning it, even temporarily, is a mistake." In a post on X, Durov said, "India's IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions. This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India -- not the insiders who leaked the exam materials. And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps." "Over the past few weeks, we removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India. We're also making the 'edited' label more visible to prevent backdating scams. Telegram is a force for good. Banning it -- even temporarily -- is a mistake," he added.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), acting on the NTA's recommendations, has issued a direction under section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to the Telegram platform in India for a defined and limited period ending June 22, covering the day of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination and its immediate aftermath.

A separate direction requires Telegram to disable in India the message-editing feature for already-posted messages till June 30, addressing the specific structural feature through which the platform has been used to fabricate after-the-event "paper leak" evidence in respect of national examinations, the NTA said in a statement.

"Both measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled on 21 June, 2026," it said.

Asked whether the action was prompted by any reports of a paper leak, the NTA chief said there was no such trigger and that authorities were instead dealing with fake messages circulating online.

"No, these were all fake messages. Yesterday also, the Ahmedabad Police cracked a case in which fake messages were being circulated," he said.

Singh said the circulation of such messages was causing anxiety among candidates. "Since this was going on, it was leading to a lot of people being anxious and a lot of mental stress to the students. We had to take this action," he said.

On whether any specific meetings preceded the decision, Singh said discussions on examination security are held regularly. "A lot of meetings are held every day," he said.

The medical-entrance examination held on May 3 was cancelled amidst allegations of irregularities, leaving lakhs of aspirants in despair.

The NTA expressed its gratitude to the MeitY for what it described as a "timely action" taken in the interest of students and said it would help ensure the conduct of "safe and secure examinations" on June 21.

The NTA said the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has served as the principal nodal agency coordinating the operational response to the Telegram-based fraud and misinformation targeting NEET candidates.

According to the agency, acting on inputs from the NTA, state law-enforcement agencies, including the police forces of Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and its own monitoring efforts, the I4C secured the prompt takedown of a "substantial number" of Telegram channels, groups and bots that openly advertised fraudulent and misleading purpose.

"NTA places on record that the intelligence-sharing and coordinated take-down action led by the Ministry of Home Affairs, through I4C, and MeitY has been continuous, prompt and substantive, and remains the operational backbone of the response," the statement said.

"This sustained inter-agency effort, well in advance of the present platform-level action, is the reason the harm caused by these rackets has been contained to the extent it has," it added.

The agency said the directions were issued after references from the NTA and the Department of Higher Education, highlighting the limitations of channel-by-channel action and seeking platform-level compliance.

"The directions are a measure of last resort, taken only after intermediate remedies, including the take-down action coordinated by I4C, had been pursued and had not produced, at the platform level, the response required to protect candidates in the run-up to the examination," it said.

"The calibration of the directions -- a narrow platform-access restriction confined to the examination window, together with a feature-specific compliance direction for the post-examination period -- reflects an effort to address the public-order concern with the minimum restriction necessary," it added.

The NTA said over the preceding weeks, channels operating openly on the platform under names that themselves advertised their purpose -- "PAPER LEAKED NEET", "Re-NEET 2026", "Private Mafia", "REE NEET MAFIAA" and similar formulations -- demanded sums ranging from a few thousand to several lakhs of rupees from candidates and their families, in exchange for purported access to the re-examination paper.

"NTA has placed on the record, and reiterates, that there is no such paper available outside the secured examination chain. The promise of any such material is, in every instance, a fraud," it said.

Explaining the decision to disable the message-editing feature, the agency said the feature, in its present form, permits channel administrators to edit previously-posted messages, including the substitution of attached files, such as PDFs, while the original send-time stamp is retained.

"This capability has been used, in respect of multiple recent examinations, to fabricate after-the-event 'paper leak' artefacts," the statement said, adding that administrators could edit old messages after an examination to insert the actual question paper and later, circulate screenshots as purported proof that the paper was available beforehand.

"A channel administrator edits an older, innocuous message to insert the actual question paper after the examination has been conducted, and the resulting chat is then circulated as purported 'evidence' that the paper was in circulation before the examination," it said.

"The MeitY direction closes this avenue of fabrication for the post-examination window in which such artefacts have historically been deployed," it added.

The NTA also cited actions taken by state law-enforcement agencies.

It said the Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit issued a public advisory on June 9, warning candidates against fraudulent claims of pre-examination access to the paper circulated through Telegram and other platforms.

The Ahmedabad City Cyber Crime Branch, the agency said, had arrested members of an inter-state cyber-fraud gang found to be operating eight Telegram channels in furtherance of the same modus operandi, with documented transactions of approximately Rs 1.5 crore routed through fraudulent bank accounts and about 1,000 mobile numbers contacted in a single month.

Investigations are in progress in multiple other states.

Acknowledging the inconvenience to legitimate users of the platform, the NTA said lakhs of people use Telegram for personal, educational, professional and informational purposes, and it regrets the inconvenience caused to them.

"The access restriction is, by its express terms, confined to the period ending 22 June 2026 -- i.e. the day after the examination," it said, adding that the message-editing restriction would not affect ordinary use of the platform for sending or receiving new messages.

The agency reiterated that the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination would be conducted as scheduled on June 21.

"The security of the examination is unaffected by the action taken; it is, in fact, the very purpose of the action. Every candidate and parent is reassured of NTA's commitment to conducting a fair, secure and credible examination," it said.

Candidates were urged to rely only on official NTA channels and the NTA website for examination-related information and ignore unverified content circulating online.

The agency also advised the public to report any fraudulent solicitations through the National Cyber Crime Helpline (1930) or the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and said NTA helplines would remain available for assistance.

Meanwhile, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) criticised the government's curbs on Telegram and disabling of its message-editing feature, calling the move a "band-aid solution".

"Shutting down Telegram is a band-aid solution and is a disproportionate answer to exam fraud," the digital rights advocacy outfit said. PTI KSH RC

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)