Court extends CBI remand of Russian nat'l in JEE Main leak case

NEW DELHI: Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday extended Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody of a Russian national till October 9 in JEE Main-2021 scam case.

Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday extended Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody of a Russian national till October 9 in JEE Main-2021 scam case. He was arrested on Monday on his arrival from Kazakhstan based on the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued by CBI in the Software tempering case of JEE Mains-2021.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Anjani Mahajan decided to extend the remand period by three more days. Court said, in view of the submissions made by the Investigation officer (IO) that the accused is required to be confronted with the data extracted from his phone, laptop and external HDD therefore for the purpose of expediting the investigation, a further three days PC remand of accused is granted to the IO.

CBI while seeking remand stated that the data extracted from the devices of the accused are too voluminous in nature and are being analyzed and the accused is required to be confronted with the data extracted from his phone, laptop and external HDD.

Advocate Sharavanth Shankar and Rohit Bhardwaj appeared for the Russian National who opposed the remand application moved by the CBI for further remand submitting that the accused has co-operated in the investigation and already two days PC remand of the accused was granted.

It is argued that there is no requirement of further PC remand of the accused. The CBI on Monday had arrested a foreign national and mastermind of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2021 paper leak case. He was the main hacker in the case, said the central agency.

"He was the mastermind in the case who has hacked the software of examination. We are questioning him to ascertain the role of the other people involved in the case and identifying the people who were giving instructions to him," said a senior CBI official.

According to the CBI, during 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.

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 that he helped other accused in hacking the computer systems of suspect candidates during the examination. Therefore, a Look Out Circular was opened against the said Russian National.

On September 2021, CBI registered a case against a private company and others including its Directors and three employees, private persons(conduits) etc on the allegations of irregularities being committed in the ongoing JEE (Mains) Exams 2021 by a private educational institution, its directors, their touts/associates and staff posted at the examination centre and other unknown persons.

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 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 country as security and once admission was done, they used to collect heavy amount ranging from 12-15 Lakh (approx) per candidate.

Searches were conducted in Delhi and NCR, Pune, Jamshedpur, Indore and Bengaluru which led to the recovery of 25 laptops, seven PCs, around 30 post-dated cheques along with voluminous incriminating documents/ devices including PDC's mark sheet of different students.