HYDERABAD: The Malkajgiri police registered a case against 30 persons, including 10 students, on Monday after they had busted a 20-member tech-savvy gang which was involved in organising mass copying during the Railway Recruitment Board examination held at various centres in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Sunday.
A case under Sections 420 and 120B of IPC and Section 66 of IT Act was registered, Malkajgiri inspector Sekhar Goud said. Police maintained that the two prime suspects, Machender and Mahender, were still at large.
In a joint operation, the Malkajgiri police and the Special Operations Team (SOT), Cyberabad, on Sunday had raided the Salarjung water pump at Upparguda railway gate near Moula Ali Railway Quarters and caught a group of persons who were relaying answers to several candidates.
Police had said Machender, a railway employee, collected `5 lakh from each candidate in return for providing answers through electronic devices. He formed a team with Iliyas, Varun, Giridhar, Venkatesh, Ashok and Srinivas for the purpose.
Machender would collect the question papers from the examination centre and send answers through WhatsApp to Varun who would, in turn, pass them on to the other members. The latter would relay the answers to the candidates via electronic devices containing a Sim card and one earpin-like bluetooth. Mass copying was reported from over a dozen centres in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in this manner, police said.
No Decision Yet on RRB Exam Cancellation; Probe Launched
Hyderabad: South Central Railway (SCR) on Monday launched an enquiry into the issue of copying in Railway Recruitment Cell (RRC) exam held on Sunday. However, no decision has been taken to cancel the exam as copying was not widespread but a localised one. If copying was found to be on a mass scale, necessary action would be taken, SCR officials said. Copying by some candidates using hi-tech gadgets is being viewed seriously by Railways. SCR officials are working in close liaison with the local police for obtaining full details of the case. On getting the official police investigation report, necessary disciplinary proceedings would be initiated against any railway employee involved in the case. RRC has undertaken filling up 2,801 vacancies for the posts of trackman, helper-II and assistant pointsman. As many as 9,16,791 eligible applicants were issued hall-tickets. The written exam was conducted in five phases on five consecutive Sundays last month. Nearly 3,91,018 candidates appeared for the examination conducted at 182 centres in Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Guntur, Tirupati and Nanded.