21 held from UP over cheating during revenue officer exam
Twenty-one persons, including members of two solvers’ gangs and some candidates employing their services, were arrested for allegedly using Bluetooth ear buds and other electronic devices during the exam, said Amitabh Yash, additional director general of police, STF
Lucknow
After apprehending 21 persons from seven districts, Uttar Pradesh police said they unearthed a nexus of two gangs involved in compromising the written examination to hire village revenue accountants held at 501 centres across the state on Sunday morning.
Some exam paper solvers and candidates have been arrested, but there was no evidence that the question paper was leaked, said Prashant Kumar, additional director general of police, law and order. The state’s special task force (STF) is further probing the matter, he added.
Twenty-one persons, including members of two solvers’ gangs and some candidates employing their services, were arrested for allegedly using Bluetooth ear buds and other electronic devices during the exam, said Amitabh Yash, additional director general of police, STF.
The arrests were made from Varanasi, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Lucknow, Moradabad and Bareilly districts, he said. These included a person from Gonda who is suspected of committing fraud by pretending to provide the question paper of the exam.
The STF team first arrested Narendra Kumar Patel and Sandip Patel from Prayagraj. “On the revelations made by them, different STF units arrested Dilip Kumar Gupta from Varanasi, Dinesh Kumar Sahu from Prayagraj, Karan Kumar from Kanpur, Raju Kumar and Sanjay Kumar Yadav from Lucknow and Mohit Singh from Moradabad,” Yash added.
Another solvers’ gang was unearthed after the arrest of Vijay Kant Patel, Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Sonu Kumar from Prayagraj. They revealed that they had taken ₹10 lakh each from seven candidates and provided them solvers to clear the recruitment exam, Yash said.
“On their revelation, Pusphendra Kumar was arrested from Varanasi and Jai Singh Patel from Kanpur. Five other candidates, who gave money for getting services of solvers, were identified as Ranvijay, Jitendra Singh, Ravi Kumar, Saurabh and Ajit Kumar. Further action will be initiated against them,” he added.
The second gang is associated with copying mafia don KL Patel and his close aide Sandeep Patel, the STF chief said. With help from Vijay Kant Patel, Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Sonu Kumar, who were arrested in Prayagraj, this gang were trying to provide answers to proxy candidates through Bluetooth devices, he said.
KL Patel worked as a teacher at the Indian Technical Institute at Mubarakpur for three years and had started a copying racket from there, Yash said. KL Patel’s gang had also helped five people get jobs in rural postal services about a month ago, he said, adding that further action was being initiated in the matter after identifying the candidates.
The Varanasi field unit of STF arrested another solver, Raj Narayan Yadav, from an examination centre for appearing in place of Krishna Yadav, a resident of Ballia, while Pusphendra Singh was arrested from another examination centre of Varanasi, an STF official said, declining to be named.
Rajiv Kumar was arrested from Bareilly for appearing as a proxy candidate for Rinku Singh of Rampur, while Raju Kumar was arrested from Lucknow for appearing in the exam in place of Rupesh Kumar of Gorakhpur, the officer said.
Sanjay Kumar Yadav was arrested for appearing in place of Amit Yadav from Aliganj in Lucknow. Two candidates were arrested in Lucknow and two more people, identified as Ravindra Kumar and Neeraj, were arrested form Moradabad, he said. Salim Warsi was arrested from Gonda for duping people by giving them assurance that he would help them clear the lekhpal recruitment examination, the officer said.
Lekhpal is a clerical post in Uttar Pradesh administration charged with maintaining village revenue accounts and land records.
