Gurgaon: Haryana Directorate of Elementary Education has sought registration of an FIR and a detailed cyber forensic investigation after an official inquiry allegedly found that 12 private schools, primarily in Nuh and Palwal, were marked approved on the department’s private school portal between Jan and June 2026 through alleged unauthorised access.Following the final inquiry report submitted on Oct 14, 2026, the directorate has asked for the probe to trace IP logs and identify any departmental employees or outside actors behind the alleged unauthorised approvals.A senior official said that while the physical recognition files of these schools were still pending on the desk, their status had already been updated to “approved” online. This has raised suspicion that either members of the internal IT cell were involved or external hackers compromised the portal.In its communication to the authorities, the directorate has sought an FIR against unidentified persons and anyone else found involved in unauthorised access to, or misuse of, the portal. It has asked for action under Information Technology Act, 2000, BNS and other applicable laws. It has specifically called for examination of IP addresses, login histories, user IDs, device details, server logs, timestamps and other technical records to establish how the alleged activity took place and who was responsible.The department has also asked investigators to examine whether any departmental login credentials were shared, compromised, stolen or misused, and whether any official or private individual facilitated the activity. It has stressed the need to immediately preserve server logs, portal activity records, uploaded documents and other electronic evidence to prevent tampering, alteration or destruction.The directorate has also suggested examining whether similar unauthorised activity took place in applications processed through the portal of department of secondary education. The communication encloses a copy of the final inquiry report dated Oct 14, 2026, along with school-wise case details and other departmental records.The issue came to light after an examination of complaints and irregularities in the processing of applications on the portal. The inquiry committee examined 13 case entries pertaining to 12 schools, as two separate case numbers were reflected against Adarsh Modern School, VPO Sakras, Firozepur Jhirka, in Nuh district. For the inquiry, the committee treated the matter as involving 12 schools.The schools named in the report are Al-Falah Public School, Punhana; Adarsh Modern School, Sakras; Narvada Public School, Ujina; Adarsh Valley Public School, Gehlab, Palwal; Dua Public School, Gangwani; Golden Public School, Jamalgarh; Evergreen Public School, Punhana; Inaya Public School, Pathkhori; Tagore Public School, Rahpuwa; Abaan Public School, Nuh; Mehtab Memorial Public School, Ghatwasan; and Kalam Public School, Tain. All are located in Nuh district or the adjoining region, except where otherwise specified.The case details show approval dates ranging from Jan to June 2026. Al-Falah Public School’s approval is dated June 12, 2026, while Narvada Public School and Adarsh Valley Public School have entries dated June 5 and June 2, respectively. Dua Public School and Golden Public School are dated May 27, Evergreen Public School May 14 and Inaya Public School May 12. The report also records applications associated with Tagore Public School, Abaan Public School, Mehtab Memorial Public School and Kalam Public School.The allegations remain subject to investigation, and the documents do not establish the responsibility of individual schools or persons. The proposed forensic examination is expected to establish the source of access, the persons involved and whether the irregularities resulted from credential misuse or other security lapses.
