19 Arrested In UP Cheating Racket, Spy Mics For Whispering Answers

Gorakhpur: A 'hi-tech' cheating racket was busted by the police in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. Eleven people have been arrested in Gorakhpur and another eight in Allahabad in connection with the cheating racket, said the police. Officers of the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force and the Allahabad district police caught the accused, who took large sums of money for apparently "solving" papers for candidates appearing in the UP police constable recruitment exam.

The 19 men were arrested a day before two major public exams began on Monday. 

"The modus operandi was that one person sitting in the exam hall will immediately send pictures of the question paper to the solvers, who would then provide answers through a spy mic. Prima facie, solvers charged Rs 5 lakh per candidate, said senior Allahabad police officer Nitin Tiwari.

"Many of those arrested are solvers, who are generally bright students appearing as proxy candidates with forged documents," senior officer Amitabh Yash, of the special task force told NDTV. 

The police have found bluetooth devices, which have been paired with mobile phones in Allahabad said Mr Yash, adding that "candidates strapped the mobile phones in places where they can't be checked."

 In Firozababd, women candidates were told to remove their jewellery, to prevent the use of bluetooth enabled spy cameras the police told NDTV. 

In Gorakhpur, three of the accused who have been identified are Anil Giri, Anand Yadav and Amarnath Yadav. While Anil and Amarnath were tasked with negotiating with the candidates and keeping track of the cash; Anand, who has a law degree solved the papers. Anil has confessed to taking money from candidates said the police. Around Rs 4 lakh in cash and ID cards of nearly a dozen candidates have been found on them.

The police are conducting raids across many locations in the state to catch the ringleader of the cheating gang.

The Uttar Pradesh government, in a bid to crackdown on the cheating mafia, has directed officers to blacklist examination centres where mass copying takes place.

A total of 32 lakh candidates are taking the exams at 881 centres for some 42, 000 posts. 

In March, the Rajasthan Police Constable Entrance Examination was cancelled following reports of "hi-tech cheating" during the test. The online examination, held for the first time in the state for police recruitment, started on March 7. But on March 12 and 14, cases of computer hacking were reported. The police also got information about an organised racket that cloned biometric identity.

"Proxy examination solvers appeared on behalf of real candidates," the police had said. The entrance examination was the first leg of the process to recruit 5,290 constables in Rajasthan.