New Delhi: Three men— including a B.Tech graduate, a diploma holder and a graduate preparing for competitive examinations— have been arrested by Delhi Police for allegedly running an interstate racket that pirated copyrighted UPSC coaching material using a bot and sold over 2,400 stolen educational videos on social media through a network of fake accounts, anonymous digital wallets and forged identities. Bank accounts linked to the accused had received nearly Rs35 lakh.The accused extracted educational videos from an online platform of a UPSC coaching institute. The copyrighted content was then sold to students at a fraction of its original price.The arrests came after a director of a UPSC coaching platform lodged a complaint about the leak. He had launched the coaching platform through YouTube around three years ago, before introducing a mobile application in Nov 2023. Since then, over 2,500 paid and free educational videos have been uploaded to the platform, which caters to nearly five lakh students. The piracy caused financial and reputational losses to the organisation and affected more than 25 employees.DCP (north) Raja Banthia said, “During the investigation, the team analysed various channels identified by the complainant. Although the suspected accounts were linked to mobile numbers registered in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, technical analysis of IP logs led investigators to 21-year-old Yuvraj Singh of Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh. He was arrested in Aligarh on June 5.”During interrogation, Singh confessed to using a bot to extract the study material, uploading it on channels and selling access to customers, while receiving payments through multiple bank accounts.Further investigation led police to 23-year-old Niranjan Kumar Mandal, a diploma holder working in a private company in Faridabad, who developed the bot used to extract the videos. Police said he sourced scripts and technical resources, procured fake wallet accounts and routed proceeds from the illegal sales through multiple bank and digital wallet accounts.The third accused, 28-year-old Shubham Kumar Pandey, a B.Tech graduate employed with a private company in Faridabad, was responsible for providing logistical and internet support to the racket.
