In October 2022, the agency had arrested a Russian hacker named Mikhail Shargin in the same case
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested Vinay Dahiya, allegedly the mastermind in the 2021 JEE Mains examination paper leak case.
The agency tracked Mr. Dahiya to his hideout in Gurugram. On Saturday, he was produced before a special court that sent him to five-day CBI custody.
In October 2022, the agency had arrested a Russian hacker named Mikhail Shargin in the same case. He was held at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on arrival from Kazakhstan’s Almaty. The accused had helped the others in hacking into the software on which the examination was conducted.
The agency had then said that some foreign nationals were involved in compromising many online examinations, including the JEE (Mains) test.
The CBI registered the case on September 1, 2021, against Affinity Education Private Limited, its directors, employees and others. They were accused of helping the candidates secure admission to top National Institutes of Technology by solving the question paper via remote access from an examination centre in Haryana’s Sonepat.
The accused persons collected the original Class X and XII mark sheets of the willing candidates, their user IDs and passwords and post-dated cheques as security. Following confirmation of admissions, they reportedly received commissions ranging from ₹12 to ₹15 lakh per candidate.
The CBI had earlier conducted searches in the national capital region, Pune, Jamshedpur, Indore and Bengaluru and seized 25 laptops, multiple personal computers and 30 post-dated cheques. It also arrested several accused, including two directors and four employees of Affinity Education.
