26 arrested for malpractice during assistant teachers' recruitment test in UP

As many as 26 people were arrested across Uttar Pradesh in connection with the assistant teachers' recruitment examination held on Sunday, police said.

District police arrested four people in Moradabad, three in Kanpur, two each in Allahabad and Azamgarh and one each in Agra and Gonda, they said.

Apart from this, the Special Task Force arrested nine people in state capital Lucknow and four in Allahabad, an official spokesperson said.

The Special Task Force of the UP Police busted a gang of impersonators appearing in the examination and those arrested included the mastermind of the gang.

A principal of a Lucknow-based college and four invigilators were among those arrested by the STF.

In a statement issued here, the UP STF said that it had been gathering information regarding impersonators taking money from candidates to take the test on their behalf.

"Principal of the National Inter College (which was an examination centre) Uma Shankar Singh, main accused Arun Kumar Singh and four invigilators were arrested. Apart from this, two candidates were also arrested," an STF spokesperson said.

Four impersonators, including the kingpin of another gang, were also arrested by the STF in Allahabad.

"As many as five Aadhaar cards, three mobile phones, six admit cards, Rs 66,000 cash and a car were recovered from the arrested persons in Prayagraj," the spokesperson said, adding that a case has been registered in this connection.

During interrogation, prime accused Nagendra told the STF that he used to take Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh from prospective candidates, and Rs 50,000 was given to the impersonator who would take the examination on the candidate's behalf, the spokesperson added.