The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested a Russian national accused in an ongoing investigation of a case related to the irregularities in the JEE (Mains) 2021.

Mikhail Shargin, the accused, was earlier detained by the Bureau of Immigration at IGI Airport, Delhi, after his arrival from Almaty, Kazakhstan.

A lookout circular was issued against him at the behest of the CBI. Shargin is suspected to be the main hacker for the alleged manipulation of the JEE Mains.

 “During the investigation, it came to light that some foreign nationals were involved in compromising many online examinations, including JEE (Mains), colluding with other accused in the instant case.

“The 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 he helped other accused in hacking the computer systems of suspect candidates during the examination. Therefore, a lookout circular was issued against the said Russian national,” the CBI said in a statement.

On September 1 last year, the agency had booked Affinity Education Pvt Ltd and its three directors — Siddharth Krishna, Vishwambhar Mani Tripathi and Govind Varshney — besides other touts and associates/conduits for the alleged manipulation of the JEE Mains 2021.

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 National Institute of Technology (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 was also alleged that the accused used to obtain Xth and XIIth 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 a heavy amount ranging from Rs 12-15 lakh per candidate.

Searches were earlier conducted on September 2 last year at 19 places, including Delhi and NCR, Pune, Jamshedpur, Indore, and Bangalore, which led to the recovery of 25 laptops, seven personal computers, around 30 post-dated cheques along with voluminous incriminating documents/ devices, including PDCs and mark-sheets of different students.