Police recruitment drive: 30 caught for innovatively cheating in cop job scam

According to the police, the accused paid ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh to a few owners of coaching classes from the Marathwada region, and some Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) aspirants to prompt the answers from the other side. “These people played a crucial role from the outside in helping the candidates with ready answers,” a police officer said

Mumbai: Thirty persons, mostly from Aurangabad, Beed and Jalna, were arrested recently for allegedly cheating as well as helping in cheating during the written examination of the police recruitment drive in Mumbai, using devices like pens with GSM SIM cards, spy earpieces and GSM card transmitters – which look like a debit card.

During the written examination, the police officer added, the invigilators noticed suspicious movements of certain candidates, based on which the police had questioned five aspirants and checked their answer sheets. He said that some of the candidates wrote the answers without even reading the questions. (HT PHOTO)

According to the police, the accused paid ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh to a few owners of coaching classes from the Marathwada region, and some Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) aspirants to prompt the answers from the other side. “These people played a crucial role from the outside in helping the candidates with ready answers,” a police officer said.

One FIR was registered each at Meghwadi, Kasturba Marg, Dahisar and Goregaon police stations and one at the Bhandup police station. Accordingly, five teams were formed to investigate the cases.

“We have made over 30 arrests in the cases so far and learnt that some MPSC aspirants and coaching class owners were the prime culprits in the entire episode. They used to approach candidates in classes or at playgrounds, while they used to practise for physical exams, and later took ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh by promising them to clear written examinations for the police recruitment drive,” the police officer said.

The Mumbai Police have just finished a major recruitment drive to fill 8,070 posts, which included 7,076 posts of constables and 994 drivers. A total of 78,522 candidates appeared for the written exams at 213 centres in the city on May 7.

During the written examination, the police officer added, the invigilators noticed suspicious movements of certain candidates, based on which the police had questioned five aspirants and checked their answer sheets. He said that some of the candidates wrote the answers without even reading the questions.

“They found GSM card transmitters and tiny earpieces lodged deep inside their ears which could be removed only with the help of a doctor, precisely an ENT specialist. When the candidates were handed over to the police, we learnt that a few people were dictating answers to them,” the police officer further said.

The investigators have also unearthed that some of the accused took photos of the question papers using button cameras connected with some outsiders, who dictated the answers to the candidates through the tiny microphones.

“The candidates sitting in exam halls need not even answer the phone calls. The transmitter answered the calls automatically. The devices were one-way receptors only and therefore the accused need not speak either. The person at the other end used to dictate answers to the candidates, who simply wrote answers without even bothering to check the questions,” said the police officer.

In some cases, the police found that the candidates were writing completely wrong answers, as they were unaware that three different sets of question papers were used for the written examination and ended up writing answers for different question paper sets.

The modus operandi employed by the accused, especially the coaching class owners, has prompted the police to suspect that they might have used the same in other competitive examinations as well and are probing that aspect as well.

Meanwhile, a few candidates exchanged RFID tags with better runners who were used as dummies to cheat in the examination.

“These gangs usually operate from Jamtara-like villages in Maharashtra, like Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Jalna. We have been talking about it since 2018. They take the money and help the candidates. This trend from Marathwada is now spreading towards Solapur, Sangli and Kolhapur,” said Rahul Kavathekar, president of the Maharashtra Competitive Exams Coordination Committee.