Telegram stops working for existing users in India but operational on VPN

Telegram has stopped functioning for many users in India after a temporary government restriction ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination. However, cybersecurity experts say the app remains accessible through VPNs, while CEO Pavel Durov questioned the effectiveness of the ban.

New Delhi: Instant messaging app Telegram has stopped working for existing users in India after the government temporarily restricted access to the app, but it continues to remain operational through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), according to industry experts.

Google delisted the app on Tuesday, and Apple’s App Store has now also removed it in compliance with the government order to block access to the app ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination.

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“Blocking Telegram will not help prevent paper leaks. It continues to be operational through VPNs, which bypass Indian servers and connect with foreign servers for operations,” Voyager Infosec Director Jiten Jain told PTI.

The Indian government ordered Google and Apple to delist the Telegram app from their app stores till June 22 to check paper leaks during the upcoming re-examination of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) on June 21.

The nationwide examination, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), is for admission to undergraduate medical institutes. The agency cancelled the previous exam held on May 3 amid allegations of a paper leak.

Besides, a separate direction requires Telegram to disable the message-editing feature for already posted messages in India till June 30, addressing the specific structural feature through which the platform was used to fabricate after-the-event “paper leak” evidence related to national examinations.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Tuesday said the ban on its messaging app by the Indian government will not stop paper leaks and will instead move them to other apps.

In a social media post, Durov said that the decision to ban Telegram for a week punishes over 150 million users of the app in India and not the insiders who leaked the exam material.

In a late-night post, he alleged that Reliance Group, in which Meta has a partial stake, may have lobbied, along with its competitor WhatsApp, to impose a ban on the company’s app in India.

A senior telecom industry source, who did not wish to be named, termed the allegations as “fake news”, saying Durov had confused Reliance Communications with Reliance Industries Ltd.