Greater Noida centre supervisor among 2 arrested for hacking NEET server

The examination is held to admit students to postgraduate medical courses. As reported by The Indian Express in April, Delhi Police had discovered that servers were hacked to help some students cheat during the exam, following which three people were arrested.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Alok Kumar told The Indian Express that they have arrested two persons — Abhinav Sharma and Ashish Maurya.

Last month, five engineers, including the supervisor of an examination centre in Chandigarh, Ankur Mishra, were arrested. During questioning, Mishra, a mechanical engineer and a site supervisor at the Indo Global College of Engineering in Chandigarh, told police that he met Sharma through an employee of an examination centre in Greater Noida. Mishra allegedly promised Sharma a large sum in exchange for his services.

“Sharma was allegedly given Rs 15 lakh by Mishra to allegedly hack the system and install the software. Sharma allegedly gave Rs 2 lakh to Maurya,” police said. Police had started conducting raids after Mishra disclosed Sharma’s name during questioning, but he was absconding for over a month after being called in for questioning. “Police had also questioned his family members in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura, and he finally surrendered before a Delhi court a few days ago,” police said.

In their chargesheet, police said US-based M/S Prometric Testings Pvt Ltd, the agency conducting the exam, failed to identify the software which had been used by the accused.

“The accused managed to break open Prometric’s security system. Unlike other students, their selected candidates got internet access on their exam computers, which helped them connect remotely with computers outside the examination hall,” police said.