IIT Kanpur director Manindra Agarwal defends temporary Telegram ban, which draws sharp criticism

Nisarg Adhikari, who exposed the flaws CBSEOSM Systems shared a comment criticizing the National Testing Agency (NTA) for welcoming the temporary ban on Telegram. Responding to the comment, Aggarwal tweeted, “The problem with the Telegram channel is not to share the leaked paper, there are many other ways to do that, but it can be used to spread fake news of leaks that appear to be real. This was done by someone during JEE Advanced. It creates unnecessary confusion.”

Also read: Telegram protests temporary ban in India: ‘You should also close malls, close roads’

His post drew intense criticism, with CBSE OSM whistleblower Sarthak Sidhanth writing, “Just because a communication medium has elements of misinformation, we have decided to shut it down. ~ IITK Director. Doesn’t WhatsApp have elements of misinformation? Doesn’t the Indian press? What is the logic behind shutting down the entire Telegram?”

The IIT director responded and shared, “Telegram, as I write, has this special feature that allows posts to be edited without showing that the edit has been made. This is dangerous. No other major social media The channel has this. One could still argue that banning is not a good idea. But the context of the ban needs to be corrected.

His response prompted a series of comments from social media users, many of whom claimed that Telegram shows when a text has been edited. However, some people supported the academician’s statements.

1. The National Testing Agency (NTA) welcomes the directions issued today regarding the Telegram platform in India. The instructions issued on the recommendations of NTA are calibrated and limited in time-frame:

(a) A direction under section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to the Telegram platform in India for a defined and limited period ending on 22nd June 2026, including the day of re-examination of NEET (UG) 2026 and immediately thereafter; And

(b) A direction requiring the Platform to disable the message-editing feature in respect of messages already posted in India for a defined period ending on June 30, 2026, addressing the specific structural feature through which the Platform has been used to fabricate “paper leak” evidence post-incident in connection with national examinations.

Both measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organized use of the platform by fraud rackets to defraud candidates appearing in the re-examination of NEET (UG) 2026 scheduled on June 21, 2026. NTA expresses its gratitude to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for this timely action in the interest of students, which will go a long way in enabling NTA to conduct safe and secure examinations on 21st June 2026.

2. Throughout the period prior to the present action, the Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs has served as the lead nodal agency coordinating the operational response to Telegram-based fraud and misinformation targeting NEET (UG) 2026 candidates. Acting on inputs continuously received from state law-enforcement agencies including NTA, police forces of Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and its continuous monitoring of public channels and platforms, I4C has immediately removed a large number of Telegram channels, groups and bots whose names and content openly advertised their fraudulent and misleading purpose. This was done with the active support of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The NTA has stated on record that intelligence sharing and coordinated take-down action led by the Home Ministry through I4C and MeitY has been sustained, prompt and concerted, and remains the operational backbone of the response. This sustained inter-agency effort, well in advance of the current platform-level action, is why the damage caused by these rackets has been controlled to the extent that it has.

3. The instructions issued today by MeitY follow references from the NTA and the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, drawing attention to the structural limitations of channel-by-channel action and seeking gradual platform-level compliance. The directive is a measure of last resort, taken only after intermediate measures, including the take-down action coordinated by I4C, were followed and did not generate the necessary response, at the platform level, to protect the candidates before the examination. The calibration of the instructions – a narrow platform-access restriction limited to the examination window, with a facility-specific compliance direction for the post-examination period – reflects an effort to address the public-order concern with the minimum restriction necessary.

4. Over the past weeks, channels operating openly on the platform under names that themselves advertised their purpose – “Paper Leak NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia”, “Re NEET Mafia” and similar formulations – demanded sums ranging from a few thousand to several lakh rupees from candidates and their families in exchange for alleged access to the re-examination paper. NTA has placed on record and reiterated that no such paper is available outside the secured exam series. Any such material promise is, in every case, a fraud.

5. The directive requiring Telegram to disable its message-editing feature in India by June 30, 2026 addresses a separate but related concern. This feature, in its current form, allows a channel administrator to edit the contents of a previously posted message – including replacement of attached files such as PDFs – while keeping the original send-time stamp intact. This capability has been used, in connection with several recent examinations, to fabricate “paper leak” artefacts after the event: a channel administrator edits an old, harmless message to insert the actual question paper after the examination has been conducted, and the resulting chat is broadcast as alleged “proof” that the paper was in circulation before the examination. The MeitY directive closes this avenue of creation to the post-examination window in which such artifacts have historically been deployed.

6. Independent action by state law-enforcement agencies, over the same period, has reinforced the scale and seriousness of the concern. Bihar Police Economic Offenses Unit issued a formal public advisory on 9 June 2026, warning candidates against fraudulent claims of pre-exam access to the paper circulated through Telegram and other platforms. Ahmedabad City Cyber ​​Crime Branch arrested members of an inter-state cyber-fraud gang who were operating around eight Telegram channels carrying out the same modus operandi. ₹In a single month, Rs 1.5 crore was siphoned off by contacting fake bank accounts and about a thousand mobile numbers. Investigations are ongoing in several other states.

7. NTA acknowledges that the access restriction issued by MeitY impacts millions of citizens who use the Telegram platform for legitimate personal, educational, professional and informational purposes, and sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to them. The access restriction, as per its express terms, is limited to the period ending on 22nd June 2026 – i.e. till the next day of examination. The feature-specific direction regarding the message-editing function, which remains in place until June 30, 2026, does not affect the normal use of the platform for sending or receiving new messages.

8. NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination will be conducted as per schedule on June 21, 2026. The security of the examination will remain unaffected by the action taken; In fact, that is the purpose of the action. Every candidate and parent is assured of NTA’s commitment to conduct fair, secure and reliable examinations. Candidates are urged to focus on their preparation, ignore unverified content being circulated on any platform and rely exclusively on the NTA website (http://neet.nta.nic.in) and verified NTA handles for all updates related to the examination.

9. Any encounter with fraudulent requests in person, by telephone, or through any online platform should be immediately reported to the National Cyber-Crime Helpline 1930, or through the National Cyber-Crime Reporting Portal http://cybercrime.gov.in. NTA has its own helplines available at 011-40759000 / 011-69227700 and neetug@nta.ac.in.

10. The NTA sincerely appreciates the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for the timely issued and calibrated instructions, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center for the sustained operational coordination that has made today’s action possible, the Central Bureau of Investigation for its parallel investigation of the underlying crimes, and the police forces of Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan and other States for their independent enforcement action – each of which, in its own measure, has contributed in protecting the integrity of one or the other. The most important examinations of the country and the interests of their candidates.