The National Testing Agency (NTA) announced that the Government of India has taken temporary action against Telegram in India to protect the integrity of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination. Access to Telegram will be restricted in India until 22 June 2026, covering the exam day (21 June 2026) and the period immediately after it. Telegram has also been directed to disable its message-editing feature in India until 30 June 2026.
According to NTA, these measures were taken because fraud groups were allegedly using Telegram to mislead students by claiming they could provide leaked NEET question papers. Authorities said several Telegram channels, groups, and bots were promoting such scams and charging candidates amounts ranging from a few thousand rupees to several lakhs. NTA stressed that no exam paper exists outside the official secure examination process and that all such offers are fraudulent.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, coordinated efforts with NTA, state police agencies, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to identify and remove many fraudulent Telegram channels. NTA stated that this joint action helped reduce the impact of these scams before stronger platform-level restrictions were introduced.
A major concern highlighted by NTA was Telegram’s message-editing feature. Officials claimed that some channel administrators edited old messages after exams had ended, replacing files with actual question papers while keeping the original timestamp. These edited posts were then circulated as false “proof” that exam papers had leaked before the examination. Disabling the editing feature is intended to prevent such fake evidence from being created.
Law-enforcement agencies have also taken action against suspected fraud networks. NTA cited a warning issued by Bihar Police on 9 June 2026 and said that the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch arrested members of an inter-state cyber-fraud gang linked to multiple Telegram channels. Investigators reportedly found transactions worth around ₹1.5 crore and evidence that about 1,000 mobile numbers had been contacted in a single month.
NTA acknowledged that the restrictions may inconvenience many legitimate Telegram users but said the measures are temporary and aimed only at protecting the examination process. The agency confirmed that the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination will be held as scheduled on 21 June 2026 and urged students to rely only on official NTA announcements for updates. Candidates and parents were also advised to report any exam-related fraud through the national cybercrime helpline 1930 or the cybercrime reporting portal.
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