CHENNAI: The real-life Vasool Raja flopped on Sunday. A routine hall ticket verification at the Indian Air Force Training Centre in Avadi brought out an alleged interstate examination fraud racket after officials caught four youths from Haryana impersonating candidates and using miniature electronic devices to cheat during a clerk recruitment examination.
The written examination, held on Sunday to fill just four clerk (Agniveer) vacancies, drew around 1,800 aspirants from across the country, police sources said.
The racket first unravelled when Indian Air Force (IAF) officials noticed that the photograph on one candidate’s admit card bore no resemblance to the person who had appeared for the lower division clerk exam. The suspect, R Gourav (21) of Thua village in Haryana’s Jind district, was allegedly writing the exam by impersonating S Aman Kumar. He was immediately detained.
Officials then escorted Gourav to the rooms where he and other candidates stayed and had kept their belongings.
During further verification, they found the bags of three other suspects, prompting a detailed check that led to the detection of another impersonator and two candidates allegedly using electronic devices.
Police identified the second impersonator as S Anil (27) of Chhattar village also from the same district. He had allegedly appeared in place of H Sunil.
The remaining two suspects, D Sawan (25) of Thua village and C Deepak (24) of Ramna Patti in Haryana’s Jind district, were allegedly found using SIM-enabled GSM communication devices, concealed inside their ears. Police said the miniature devices, fitted with SIM cards, were designed only to receive incoming calls, allowing users to hear answers from an external source. Air Force officials activated a signal jammer, which disrupted the communication, revealing the concealed gadgets. The four were handed over to the Muthapudupet police.
During interrogation, the accused allegedly admitted to receiving an advance payment of `50,000 to impersonate candidates. Police said efforts are under way to trace the original candidates. They also seized a Bluetooth dual SIM GSM box, a Bluetooth earpiece, eight cell phones, and 10 SIM cards.
Based on an Air Force official complaint, the Muthapudupet police registered a case under section 319(2) of the BNS and sections 62 and 66D of the Information Technology Act.
This incident mirrors the iconic exam cheating scene from the Kollywood film Vasool Raja MBBS, wherein Kamal Haasan’s character in the film used a proxy to take his medical entrance exam.