UP STF busts CSIR-NET exam fraud racket, university staff among 7 arrested

An online exam for CSIR- NET exam was conducted in computer lab of Subharti University's law department.

A team of the state's special task force (STF) busted a gang which was involved in providing solvers for the CSIR-NET exam and arrested seven persons, including key university personnel and four applicants.

The ASP of STF Brajesh Kumar Singh received inputs that the exam had been compromised and those involved in it could be arrested during the process of exam. (iStock)

A press communique of STF alleged that the gang members charged huge amount of money from applicants for providing them facility of online solvers to solve their exam papers.

The STF team, acting on intelligence received by ASP Brajesh Kumar Singh, raided the law department computer lab of Subharti University in Meerut during the CSIR-NET exam.

The team recovered a laptop, five central processing units( CPU), two bootable pendrive drives, four CSIR- UGC NET exam identity cards, three mobile phones, three Aadhaar cards, two PAN cards and incriminating documents.

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Among those apprehended are Arun Sharma, the IT manager of Subharti University in Meerut, Vineet Kumar, a computer lab assistant, and Ankur Saini, a server operator from NSEIT, the company responsible for conducting the online exam. The four applicants arrested have been identified as Ankit, Tamanna, Monika, and Jyoti, all hailing from Haryana.

The investigation revealed that Arun Sharma had set up a parallel system in his room and gained unauthorised access to the exam server with the assistance of NSEIT company's server operator Ankur Saini and lab assistant Vineet Kumar.

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The compromised exam files were then shared with an accomplice named Ajay in Haryana, who organised solvers to complete the exams and send the solutions back to the applicants who had paid for this illicit service.

The financial arrangement involved Arun Sharma receiving ₹50,000 per paper, while Ankur Saini and Vineet Kumar were paid ₹10,000 each.

The raids are being conducted targeting other members of the gang and a case under sections 318(2)/338/336(3)/61(2) and 111/3 of Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita and sections 3/5/7/9/10 of UP Public Exams Act and 66(d) of IT Act has been registered against the arrested persons in Jani police station of the district.