Rajasthan’s Bhilwara Police on Friday swooped down on a 19-year-old student from Bhilwara district for allegedly operating an online fraud scheme which targeted NEET aspirants by selling fake re-NEET UG 2026 question papers through a Telegram channel named ‘Paper Mafia.’

The cops raided the house of the accused, identified as Akash Chaudhary, and took him into custody. The police claim he duped students by promising access to authentic re-NEET exam papers while charging thousands of rupees for the counterfeit material.

Culprit used VPN to avoid detection

Senior police officials familiar with the development said Akash used to run the Telegram channel, ‘Paper Mafia,’ where he allegedly advertised purported leaked question papers to anxious exam-bound students.

To avoid detection, he allegedly used a USA-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) number and proxy network, concealing his identity while conducting transactions online. Police said he charged approximately Rs 4,000 for each paper and collected payments by means of QR codes directly linked to his bank account.

Preliminary findings conducted by police suggest he had been in touch with nearly 52 candidates through the platform, underlining the scale of the alleged fraud.

Created fake papers via study material

During interrogation, Akash told the cops that he used to prepare fake question papers by scanning and compiling content from standard books used for NEET preparation and study materials. He then used to present these documents to students as genuine leaked exam papers.

The police recovered a cell phone, a NEET preparation guide and several other documents from his possession, during the raid at his house. The cops are now examining the seized digital evidence to ascertain the entire extent of the alleged scam and identify all the victims.

Tip-off leads to arrest

The case surfaced after the police received intelligence inputs regarding suspicious online activities related to exam paper leaks. Information was reportedly shared through the Government of India’s S-MEC portal, alerting officials to possible fraudulent activities.

At the same time, the District Special Team (DST) received a separate tip-off about a youth in Bhilwara’s Patel Nagar area allegedly selling fake exam papers online. Acting swiftly on the tip-off, the police constituted a special team and carried out the raid, following which Akash fell into police dragnet.

Background of the accused

As per reports, Akash’s family hails from Rajasthan’s Churu district, but has been residing in Bhilwara for 25 years. He pursued his school education in the city and later moved to Jaipur to prepare for competitive exams after Class 12. He had returned to Bhilwara just two days prior to his arrest.

Police are now sifting through bank records, digital communications and potential accomplices to determine how many students may have been deceived.