Mass cheating in exam: Errant railway staff to face action

A day after mass copying through hi-tech gadgets by some candidates appearing for railway recruitment exam came to light here, authorities today warned of strict disciplinary action against any employee of the transport undertaking found involved in the racket.
Cyberabad Police yesterday busted a gang which was allegedly involved in hi-tech mass cheating in the recruitment exam conducted by South Central Railway (SCR) for various posts in Hyderabad and all over the country.
They arrested 30 people, including 10 candidates, and found that a Railway employee was the mastermind of the racket.
South Central Railway said it was in touch with police officials to gather more details about the racket.

"The matter has been taken with all seriousness by South Central Railway. Taking note of the incident, the SCR administration immediately conducted a detailed review in this case," Secunderabad-headquartered SCR said in a release here.
"SCR officials have been working in close liaison with the local police for obtaining full details of the case. On getting the investigation report, necessary disciplinary proceedings will be initiated against any railway employee(s), involved in the case," it said.

"It will be ensured that stringent action is taken against the errant staff."
Recruitment cell of SCR is filling up 2,801 vacancies in the posts of trackman, helper-II and Assistant Pointsman. As many as 9,16,791 applicants were issued hall tickets for appearing in the written examination, conducted in five phases on Sundays in November.

A total of 3,91,018 candidates appeared for the exam held at 182 centres in six cities under SCR Zone - Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Guntur, Tirupati and Nanded.
The mass copying using electronic devices was detected in the last phase of the exam yesterday when police raided an area in Salarjung, from where the gang was operating.
Electronic devices with in-built SIM cards, laptops, printer, ear-pins like bluetooth, cellphones, data cards and cables, besides 17 bikes were recovered from the accused.
The main accused, Machender, is a railway employee who lured gullible candidates by collecting Rs 5 lakh each from them and provided electronic devices to facilitate the malpractice.