Student arrested in Jaipur for selling fake NEET-UG Retest papers

A 19-year-old student from Bhilwara, Rajasthan, has been arrested for allegedly selling fake NEET-UG re-examination question papers through a Telegram channel named “Paper Mafia,” just days before the scheduled retest on June 21.

According to police, the accused operated using a US-based VPN and proxy network to hide his identity and charged aspirants around ₹4,000 per paper. The Telegram channel reportedly had about 52 members, where fake question papers were circulated as genuine exam material.

Investigators said the accused, Akash Choudhary, allegedly created the fake papers by scanning and compiling content from NEET preparation books and passing them off as leaked exam material. Payments were allegedly collected via QR codes, and police have recovered a mobile phone, study material, and related documents during the raid.

The arrest was made following intelligence inputs and coordinated action by local police units. Authorities said the Special Branch flagged suspicious online activity linked to examination fraud, leading to a raid at the accused’s residence in Bhilwara.

Officials are now examining his digital records and financial transactions to identify possible links to a wider network and to determine how many candidates may have been duped.

The case comes amid heightened scrutiny of Telegram after concerns over exam-related fraud and alleged paper leaks linked to NEET-UG, with restrictions on certain platform features expected to remain in place until June 22.