Fingerprint mismatch leads Delhi Police to cheating racket in staff exam

The Delhi Police has unearthed a cheating racket in the multi-tasking staff (MTS) recruitment exam held in 2018-19, after anomalies were found in the fingerprints of 11 candidates.

Police said the candidates, who had cleared the written test, were caught when the recruitment cell called them in January to get their appointment letters. During fingerprint verification, the biometric system showed it did not match those taken during the exam. Their signatures didn’t match either.

The recruitment cell, after taking the approval of Delhi Police Commissioner Balaji Srivastava, filed a complaint at Mukherjee Nagar police station. When contacted, DCP (Recruitment Cell) Shweta Chauhan said, “We have filed a complaint at Mukherjee Nagar police station after we came to know of the matter.”

The Delhi Police had launched the first phase of the selection in 2017, a written test, to fill up 707 vacancies in various categories under MTS recruitment. Around 7.5 lakh people had applied then for vacancies such as cooks, water carriers, cobblers, washermen, tailors, gardeners, barbers, and carpenters.

“In the 2018-19 test, as many as 2.83 lakh people had appeared for written test and 3,625 qualified. Later, 408 candidates were selected. Out these, 268 joined basic training. Applications of 78 candidates were cancelled and the process of 62 candidates was pending,” a senior police officer said.

The complaint has been filed by Inspector of Recruitment Cell, Deepak Chandra. “In his complaint, he said the result of the MTS exam was declared on February 28, 2020, and 11 candidates were called to collect offer letters to join the basic training course from January 21 this year. However, their fingerprints did not match those taken during the written exam. They were asked to come on April 9 to test their fingerprints,” said a senior police officer of the Northwest district.

Sources said they were also called to the headquarters of a biometric firm in East Delhi; nine of them appeared and senior police officers were also present. “Their fingerprints did not match again. Show cause notices were issued to them to explain why their prints did not match with the biometric records. However, they failed to give a plausible reason. Former Delhi Police chief S N Shrivastava was also informed of this,” police sources said.

During investigation, police found that imposters took the exam on their behalf.