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Naib tehsildar recruitment scam: Second-rank holder among two in Punjab Police net
Patiala police on Friday arrested two persons, including the second rank holder, in the naib tehsildar recruitment scam
Patiala police on Friday arrested two persons, including the second rank holder, in the naib tehsildar recruitment scam.
Balraj Singh had secured second rank in the exam, results of which were declared in October by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).
The second arrested person is Verinderpal Chaudhry, who was at 21st spot on the merit list.
Patiala senior superintendent of police (SSP) Varun Sharma said, “No doubt the exam was rigged as one of three toppers has been arrested. Two others from the same examination centre are also under scanner and will be quizzed.”
Balraj had previously failed to crack two exams conducted by PPSC.
“During the interrogation, he confessed that he had struck a deal to secure the job through a Haryana-based racket,” the SSP said.
He said a report has been shared with the higher authorities wherein it has been duly verified that the exam was rigged by using latest gadgets, some probably made in China.
He said there is a clear direction from the state government not to spare any guilty, whosoever he be.
An FIR under sections 419, 420, 465, 468, 471, and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and 66D of the Information Technology Act has already been registered against the persons who had helped the candidates appearing for various government exams in exchange of huge amount of money.
The police had earlier arrested five persons – Navraaj Chaudhary, Jatinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh of Patiala and Sonu Kumar and Varjinder Singh of Haryana.
Officials privy to the investigation said the police had received inputs that not only the naib tehsildar exam, members of the racket had also rigged other tests conducted in Punjab and Haryana. They had set up a control centre in Haryana to solve the papers, the officials added.
The police have so far recovered 11 global system for mobile communication (GSM) devices, seven mini-Bluetooth earplugs, 12 mobiles, one laptop and two pen drives used by the accused during the exam process. They have yet to arrest at least seven more persons from Punjab and Haryana who were involved in the rigging process.
What was their modus operandi
One of the arrested persons, Varjinder Singh, told the police that some dummy candidates were used to take the test purely for the purpose of capturing images of question papers with the help of wireless cameras. They would then send the images to people helping them from the outside, who would solve the question papers, while the dummy candidates leave the examination centre.
At their command centre in Haryana’s Jind, subject-matter experts, who were roped in by the racket from different locations, would solve the questions and an answer key used to be prepared.
The answers were then dictated to the candidates via mini GSM/Bluetooth devices as small as 4mm. The devices fitted in the candidates’ shoes were on auto answer mode.
Another accused Sonu Kumar admitted that he dictated answers to the candidates in Patiala during the naib tehsildar recruitment exam.
The candidates used predetermined signals to communicate with the person dictating the answers. Some such gestures were coughing for repetition of answers and tapping to notify the test booklet series.
