‘Spy camera' hidden in button helps bust 6-year cheating racket for Delhi recruitment exams

The chargesheet, filed in a fast-track court, names eight suspects, detailing a sophisticated operation involving Bluetooth devices for relaying answers.

A phone’s camera disguised as a shirt button and fitted with a “spy camera” to photograph question papers has helped Delhi Police uncover an alleged organised government recruitment examination cheating racket that investigators say has been operating for nearly six years, according to a chargesheet filed last week before a special fast-track court.

The chargesheet, seen by HT, names eight accused, including a lab attendant at DU’s Lady Irwin College. (Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times file photo)

The chargesheet, on which cognisance is yet to be taken, is the first filed by Delhi Police before the fast-track court designated to hear cases under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, including the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.

The 500-page chargesheet, filed on September 23 before special fast-track judge Ajay Gupta of Rouse Avenue Courts, details what police described as a “sophisticated” and “well-planned” cheating module. Photographs of questions were allegedly transmitted to an electronic tablet operated by middlemen and question solvers, with answers then relayed to candidates through concealed Bluetooth earpieces.

The chargesheet, seen by HT, names eight accused, including a lab attendant at DU’s Lady Irwin College. They have been booked under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) relating to cheating, criminal conspiracy, petty organised crime and causing disappearance of evidence, besides various sections of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act.

The case began with two candidates, Hemant and Aarti, being caught allegedly using unfair means during the Lower Divisional Clerk (LDC) recruitment examination conducted by Central Sanskrit University on July 26 at a Janakpuri centre.

According to the FIR, Aarti concealed a phone under her clothes and took it into the examination hall. Hemant was caught in another room with a wireless device and earbuds.

Their arrests led investigators to what police described as a much larger network.

The chargesheet names Sonu Kumar, a fireman with the Chandigarh Fire Department from Haryana’s Dadri, as the alleged mastermind. Police said Sonu and co-accused Deepak, a lab attendant with Hyderabad University, had been running the operation since 2020.

According to the chargesheet, candidates were equipped with customised phones, wireless devices and specially designed clothing before entering examination centres.

“Customised mobile phones were prepared by installing applications namely ‘SC-OS6’ and ‘Air Droid’,” the chargesheet said. The apps facilitated captured and transmitting of the question papers. “A mobile phone was concealed inside the shirt worn by Aarti by fixing it at the place of the second button ,” the chargesheet said.

Aarti allegedly went to the washroom to adjust the device’s camera and transmit photos of the question paper. She was caught there and flushed the Bluetooth earbuds down the toilet, police said.

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