The Main Event On Tuesday, the Central Government of India made a major decision to block access to the messaging app Telegram across the country. This restriction was set to last until June 22, 2026. The government took this step right before the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2026 re-examination, which was scheduled to take place on June 21, 2026. This action was not sudden. It happened because the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education specifically asked the government to step in and help.
To understand why the government had to block a major app for the whole country, we need to look at the background story of what was happening on Telegram leading up to the exam.
The Background Story
The Rise of Cheating Gangs
The core reason behind this massive step was the open and organized use of Telegram by cheating gangs to trick students. Leading up to the June 21 re-examination, many bad actors set up public channels on Telegram with the clear goal of making money off nervous students and their parents.
These gangs were not hiding. They operated out in the open, giving their channels very obvious names to attract attention. Some of the names of these open channels included “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia”, and “REE NEET MAFIAA”.
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The Financial Fraud
Once students or their families joined these channels, the gangs would demand money. They asked for amounts ranging from a few thousand rupees all the way up to several lakhs of rupees. In exchange for this money, the criminals promised to give the students the real question paper before the exam started.
The NTA has made it very clear that these promises are complete lies. The NTA stated strongly that there is no exam paper available outside of their highly secure system, and anyone promising to give out the paper is running a fraud. However, out of fear and pressure, many people were still falling into this trap.
The Fake Proof Trick: How They Used Telegram's Features
The problem was not just that people were asking for money. The bigger issue was how these gangs tricked the public into believing that the papers were actually leaking. They did this by abusing a specific technical feature built into Telegram: the message-editing feature.
Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how their trick worked:
- Long before the exam started, a channel owner would post a completely normal, harmless message on Telegram.
- Telegram records the exact time and date this message was sent.
- Later, after the actual exam finished and the real question paper became public, the channel owner would go back to that old message and edit it.
- They would delete the harmless text and attach a PDF of the real question paper instead.
- Because of how Telegram works, the message keeps its original time stamp from before the exam.
By doing this, the criminals created fake proof. They would take screenshots of this chat and share it everywhere. Anyone looking at the screenshot would see the real exam paper next to a time stamp from before the exam started, making it look like the paper was leaked early. The criminals used this fake proof to cause panic and make more people pay them money.
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Police Action Before the Ban
The government and police did not ignore this problem. For a long time before the app was restricted, police were working hard to stop these gangs. The main group handling this was the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The I4C worked closely with the NTA and local police forces from states like Bihar, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. Together, they tracked down and deleted a large number of these fake Telegram channels and groups that were misleading students.
The police also made actual arrests. For example, the Ahmedabad City Cyber Crime Branch caught an inter-state gang that was running eight different Telegram channels using this exact trick. This one gang had made around 1.5 crore rupees through fake bank accounts and had called about a thousand different phone numbers in just one single month. At the same time, the Bihar Police Economic Offences Unit released a public warning on June 9, 2026, telling students not to fall for these Telegram scams. Other states were also busy running their own investigations.
Why Closing Single Channels Was Not Enough
Even though the police and the I4C were working hard and taking down many channels, it was not fixing the problem completely. The NTA realized that there is a limit to taking down one channel at a time. As soon as police deleted one channel, the criminals would simply make a new one. The NTA called this the "structural limits of channel-by-channel action".
Because taking down single channels was not enough to protect the students in the final days before the exam, the NTA realized they needed to force the entire Telegram platform to follow the rules. They called this a "measure of last resort". This means they only decided to block the app after they had tried everything else and it had failed to stop the bad actors.
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Explaining the NTA Press Release
To explain to the public what was happening, the National Testing Agency put out a detailed Press Release on June 16, 2026. In this document, the NTA said they were very happy with the strict orders that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had given to Telegram.
The press release explained that the government's actions were very carefully planned so that they only lasted for a short, specific amount of time to protect the exam. There were two main rules issued by the government:
Rule 1: Blocking the App During the Exam
The first rule was made using Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. This rule ordered a complete block of the Telegram app in India. However, this block was temporary. It was only set to last until June 22, 2026.
The NTA explained that they picked this specific date to cover the day of the exam (June 21) and the day right after it. By blocking the app completely during this short window, they stopped the cheating gangs from talking to students or causing any panic while the exam was actually happening.
Rule 2: Stopping the Fake Proof Trick
The second rule was made to stop the technical trick explained earlier. The government ordered Telegram to disable the message-editing feature for messages that had already been posted in India.
This rule was set to last a little bit longer, ending on June 30, 2026. By turning off the edit button for old messages, the government completely stopped the criminals from attaching real exam papers to old timestamps. The press release noted that criminals usually try to post these fake leaked papers in the days right after the exam is over, which is why this rule stayed active until June 30.
Saying Sorry to Normal Users
The NTA knew that completely blocking Telegram would cause problems for regular people. In their press release, the NTA admitted that hundreds of thousands of Indian citizens use Telegram every single day for normal, legal reasons like schoolwork, office jobs, and talking to family.
The NTA said they sincerely regretted the trouble this caused for normal users. To make people feel better, they reminded everyone that the total block of the app would end right after the exam on June 22. They also clearly explained that turning off the message-editing feature until June 30 would not stop normal people from sending or receiving new messages. They tried to use the smallest amount of restriction possible to fix the problem.
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A Message of Reassurance to Students
A major goal of the press release was to calm down students and their parents. The NTA promised that the NEET UG 2026 re-exam would happen safely on June 21, 2026, just like they planned. They stated that the security of the actual exam was totally safe and that they blocked Telegram specifically to protect that security.
The NTA told all students to ignore any unverified rumors they saw online and to only trust updates posted on the official NTA website. They told students to just focus on studying for their test.
How to Report Criminals
The NTA also asked the public to help them fight the scammers. They said that if anyone is contacted by someone asking for money for exam papers—whether it happens in person, on a phone call, or on the internet—they should report it right away.
People were told to call the National Cyber-Crime Helpline at the number 1930, or report it online at cybercrime.gov.in. They also provided their own NTA phone numbers (011-40759000 and 011-69227700) and email address (neetug@nta.ac.in) for people to ask for help.
Saying Thank You
Finally, at the end of the press release, the NTA made sure to thank all the different government teams that helped them. They thanked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for quickly ordering the new rules. They thanked the Ministry of Home Affairs and the I4C for their constant hard work. They thanked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for doing parallel checks, and they praised the local police forces of Bihar, Gujarat, and Rajasthan for doing a great job catching the criminals. The NTA said that all of these groups working together is what protected the students and kept one of the biggest exams in the country safe from cheating.
FAQs
Was Telegram completely banned in India?
No. The restriction was temporary and limited to the NEET re-examination period. The government stated that access would be restored after June 22, 2026. The Central Government temporarily restricted Telegram in India to prevent cheating, fraud, and the spread of fake paper leak claims ahead of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled on June 21, 2026
Why did the government disable Telegram's message-editing feature?
Authorities found that some users were editing old messages after the exam to insert question papers while keeping the original timestamp, creating fake evidence of paper leaks
Were there any arrests related to the NEET Telegram scam?
Yes. Police agencies, including the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch, reportedly arrested members of an inter-state cyber fraud gang operating multiple Telegram channels linked to NEET scams.
Will the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination be conducted as scheduled?
Yes. The NTA assured candidates that the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination would be conducted securely and fairly on June 21, 2026.
How can students report NEET-related scams?
Students and parents can report cyber fraud through the National Cyber Crime Helpline at 1930 or the Cyber Crime Reporting Portal at cybercrime.gov.in.
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