The government actually blocked Telegram across India this morning. MeitY issued the order under Section 69A of the IT Act, and the app is completely down on Jio, Airtel, and other networks. Apparently, the block is going to stay until Monday, June 22. It is already getting pulled from the app stores too.
This is all because of the NEET-UG re-exam happening on June 21. The NTA recommended the block because cheating networks are using public channels to scam students. Channels with names like Private Mafia and Paper Leaked NEET have been demanding thousands from families, claiming they have the real question papers. The cyber crime teams tried taking down individual groups for weeks, but new ones kept popping up instantly. The scale was just too big, so they went for a total block as a last resort.
There is another weird rule in the directive about disabling the message-editing feature for old posts until June 30. This is to fix a trick scammers use. They usually post a random empty file or a basic note before an exam. Then, once the test is over and the real paper comes out, they edit that old post to swap in the actual questions. Since Telegram keeps the old pre-exam timestamp, it makes it look like a real paper leak and creates public panic. Blocking the edit button completely stops this post-exam fraud.
Law enforcement has been chasing these networks across multiple states. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Home Ministry coordinated with police forces in Bihar, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Police recently caught an inter-state gang running eight of these Telegram channels. They found transactions worth 1.5 crore rupees routed through fake bank accounts. They were contacting around a thousand phone numbers in a single month to find targets.
The NTA released a statement saying they know this causes massive trouble to lakhs of people who use the app for regular office work or studies. They sincerely regret the inconvenience. But with all the protests over earlier paper leaks, the government is making the Sunday re-test the absolute priority. Over 10 lakh students downloaded their admit cards within 24 hours of the link going live. The agency wants a clean exam at all costs.
Some tech groups are debating if blocking a massive global app sets a bad precedent. They feel it is a piecemeal move that does not fix the core system failures of exam management. But the government says it is a calibrated, time-bound safety measure. The main app block ends on June 22, right after the exam weekend.
The edit feature restriction stays for an extra week to stop post-exam rumors. Normal operations should return as soon as the deadlines pass.