Tech-savvy cheats from Haryana leak job test in Madhya Pradesh

CHANDIGARH: In a stark reminder of the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIMPT) being leaked by tech-savvy cheats in 2015, the Madhya Pradesh police have arrested eight men for leaking a recruitment test for a government job in Jabalpur. All the accused are from Hisar and Jind in Haryana and have been booked for forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy.

As in the AIPMT leak, the fraudsters were using micro SIM cards and bluetooth devices along with micro earphones known as 'makhi' to leak a test to recruit lower division clerks at Tropical Forest Research Institute.

‘Those cheating in exam were dummy candidates’

The exam was held on Sunday at an engineering college in Neemkheda. The FIR was registered on a complaint of one of the scientists at Tropical Forest Research Institute (TFRI), Sumit Chakrabarti.

Barela police station incharge and deputy superintendent of police, Puspa Prajapati, said that during the exam, an invigilator noticed that one of the candidates, Sumit Kumar, was repeatedly touching his ears. It was found that he was receiving messages via a micro earphone connected to a bluetooth device.

“Later, several other candidates were found using the same modus operandi,” she said. “When their documents were checked, it was found that not only were the men cheating, they were also dummy candidates, taking the exam for someone else.”

Two of the accused managed to escape before they could be arrested.

According to the police, one of the accused was sending photographs of the question paper with the help of a small camera to a ‘control room’ set up in an Innova car parked outside the exam centre. The men in the car were the ‘experts’ who gave the answers, which were then relayed to dummy candidates with the help of the earpieces and a bluetooth device attached to their vests.

Those arrested have been identified as Nishant Kumar, Sumit Sangwan, Bindu, Shailender Kumar, Sonu Sharma, Vikas Kumar, Rajinder and Parvez Sharma.

While Nishant, Sumit, Bindu and Shailender were given four days police remand by a local court on Monday, the other accused have been sent to judicial custody.

Prajapati said that Sandeep Kumar and Deepak Kumar managed to flee from the spot. The car, mobile phones and other devices used to leak the exam, have been seized.

“Initial investigation has revealed that the candidates were allured by the mastermind, Sandeep Kumar. They had paid Rs 2 lakh each to clear the exam and met Sandeep at a coaching centre in Jind,” the DSP said.