NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday sent Mikhail Shargin, a Russian national, to custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation for two days. Shargin, accused of being the mastermind of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2021 paper leak case, was arrested in Delhi on Monday on his arrival from Kazakhstan. This is the 24th arrest in the case. TimesviewThe CBI says at least 820 students cheated during the examinations. They are both guilty of creating “an illegal market” for crooks and subverting the examination system. Violators like them keep honest and deserving students out of premium institutes. If the charges are proved, these "cheaters" should be identified, those that have got admission should be dismissed from their respective institutes and all should be barred from appearing in any future examinations. Unless an example is made of them, the “illegal market” will continue to thrive.Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Vaibhav Mehta stated in the order that “after going through the material on record and submissions made by both the sides, this court is of the view that for the purpose of carrying out investigation, police custody remand of the accused is necessary and so this court partly allows the application moved by the IO and grants police custody remand of the accused for two days.” Earlier, the CBI moved an application asking for five days remand of Shargin. “The custody is necessary to unearth the conspiracy, to confront the data present in his phone, laptop and external hard disk,” it stated. The agency told the court that the 25-year-old Russian hacker allegedly aided cheating by 820 students in the examination. Each student was allegedly charged Rs 12-15 lakh to be provided with solvers. The CBI stated that it was revealed during the course of the investigation that foreign nationals were involved in the hacking. The accused used to collect class 10, 12 marksheets, user IDs, passwords and post-dated cheques of the candidates as ‘security’. After the successful admission process, they collected the amount from the candidates, the agency added. Counsels appearing for the Russian national objected to the custody and stated that Shargin has been arrested “only on the disclosure statement of the co-accused” and there is “nothing substantiative against him to connect him with the offence alleged”. The investigation officer requested the court to direct the accused to provide his username and password to check, scan and investigate the data of his phone and laptop following which the court directed Shargin to cooperate. Shargin had allegedly tampered with the iLeon software, the platform on which the JEE (Main) examination was conducted, and helped other accused in hacking the computer systems of candidates appearing in the examination. On September 21, 2021, the agency had booked a private firm and its three directors and others for alleged manipulation of the examination.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/2021-jee-main-paper-leak-russian-hacker-sent-to-two-day-cbi-custody/articleshow/94652644.cms