Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov at an event in Barcelona, Spain. (Reuters File)Asserting that the Indian government has “punished” over 150 million ordinary users, Telegram founder Pavel Durov criticised the temporary ban on the cloud-based messaging app ahead of NEET re-tests.Durov said the leaks have “simply moved to other apps” and the ban has’t stopped anything.The government temporarily blocked Telegram, saying it was used to try to defraud candidates for the national medical entrance test, which had already been hit by allegations of leaked papers last month that led millions of results to be cancelled.Why India banned TelegramThe Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has blocked Telegram in India till June 22. Further, no messages can be edited till June 30. Both these actions have been pinned on the NEET-UG 2026 retest that will be take place on June 21.According to the National Testing Agency (NTA), “both measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled on 21 June 2026.”The NTA was clear that this was a “a measure of last resort, taken only after intermediate remedies, including the take-down action coordinated by I4C, had been pursued and had not produced, at the platform level, the response required to protect candidates in the run-up to the examination.”Channels on Telegram have been operating under names like- “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia”, “REE NEET MAFIAA” — and have “demanded sums ranging from a few thousand to several lakhs of rupees from candidates and their families, in exchange for purported access to the re-examination paper”, the NTA statement said, adding that these sort of promises are “in every instance, a fraud,” it said.Story continues below this adWhy Telegram ban isn’t foolproofThe ban isn’t foolproof and there are ways to get around it, the National Testing Agency’s (NTA’s) Director General Abhishek Singh admitted.But he defended the government’s decision to block Telegram access in India while conceding that some operators could use VPNs to get around the block.However, many students won’t be able access these channels and the fraud network will lose its market, he said.“Even though they can continue operating channels using VPNs, if there is no clientele, the fraud will be prevented, and students will be protected from losing money and wasting their time dealing with fabricated question paper leaks.”