BHOPAL: An alleged recruitment examination fraud has surfaced in Madhya Pradesh in the MP Excise Constable Recruitment Test 2024, conducted by the state Employee Selection Board (ESB) at a centre in Ratlam.
Before declaring the results of the online examination on February 5, 2026, the ESB analysed the performance data of candidates who had secured unusually high marks. The scrutiny identified 12 candidates with exceptionally high scores, though many of these had recorded comparatively low marks in the earlier MP State Police Recruitment Test.
Acting on its internal findings, ESB principal system analyst Pranit Sijaria lodged a cheating case at MP Nagar Police Station in Bhopal against the 12 candidates.
Nine of them are from the Bhind and Morena districts of the Gwalior-Chambal region, two are from Haryana, and one is from Agra in Uttar Pradesh. The case has since been transferred to Ratlam district police, as the alleged irregularities occurred at the examination centre there.
CCTV footage from computer labs at the Ratlam centre, where exams were conducted between September 9 and September 15, 2025, indicated that the candidates appeared to have received help from someone.
The ESB’s internal analysis found that computer monitors allotted to all 12 candidates were replaced minutes before they entered their respective labs. Time-based scrutiny further revealed that many of them rapidly scrolled through the entire question paper within the first 10 to 15 minutes without attempting answers.
After a prolonged period of inactivity, the same candidates displayed an extraordinary surge in correct responses during the final segment of the examination, a pattern flagged by the Board’s system as “High Strike Rate” anomalies.
Despite a two-hour time limit, some candidates reportedly solved as total of 100 questions within 15 to 20 minutes and remained seated idle thereafter. The ESB report pointed to possible screen manipulation, external answer relay or insider facilitation behind the suspected fraud.
‘Common hand’
Candidates appeared to have received help, possibly from a common individual
Computer monitors for 12 candidates were replaced before they entered labs