Police recruitment exam fraud: 9 held by STF from Mathura, Agra & Lucknow

With the arrest of nine people from Agra, Mathura and Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task force (STF) on Sunday busted three gangs which were allegedly assisting candidates in recruitment exam for police constable, officials said.

These gangs, one of which was using gadgets like bluetooth earphones and web cameras, provided fraud candidates who wrote the offline recruitment exam 2018 for UP Police and PAC for aspirants, the officials said.

They would charge the aspirants between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, the STF said in a statement issued here.

One of the gangs, which allegedly assisted constable recruitment exam aspirants to use unfair means, was busted and its members were arrested in Agra, it said.

Shivkumar and Bhuwanesh from Mathura and Satyam Katiyar from Kanpur Dehat were arrested. Two fake admit cards and cash were recovered from them, it said.

They also admitted that they used to charge Rs 6-8 lakh from people to prepare fake exam-related documents, the STF said.

The kingpin along with two of his gang members was held from Mathura by the Noida field unit of the STF.

Pawan Singh and his aides Jeevan Singh and Rajkumar Singh, all three hailing from Aligarh district, were arrested, it said.

"Four sim card-based electronic communication devices, 22 bluetooth earphones, one web camera, marksheets and admit cards of 11 exam candidates and Rs 15,000 were seized from their possession," an STF officer said.

An SUV which was used by them was also impounded, the officer said.

"The candidates sitting for the exam would read out the questions that would be transmitted through the devices fixed in their amulets to gang members outside the exam centres who would then feed them with correct answers," the STF said.

According to the officials, the third gang was busted in Lucknow by the STF, which was carrying out an operation to target exam frauds on specific inputs about their involvement in police recruitment exams.

Nishant Prabhakar, Santosh Tiwari, both residents of Lucknow, and Santosh Paswan from Nalanda in Bihar, were arrested, the agency said.

"They used to send fake candidates by tampering admit cards and would charge aspirants anywhere from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 12 lakh, the STF said in a statement.

The agency said legal proceedings against the accused men were underway and they were being interrogated to elicit details about their nexus, which could help check such exam frauds.