THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of the arrest of six people from Haryana in connection with cheating in the recruitment exam conducted by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) on Sunday, the police have decided to verify all the 85 candidates from that state who had turned up for the exam. The Thiruvananthapuram city police will dispatch a team to Haryana this week to scrutinize the candidates after the top brass developed suspicion over the genuineness of the candidates.
As many as 20,000 candidates had applied for the examination of which 469 were from Haryana. Among them, 85 had appeared for the exam.
City police commissioner C Nagaraju said that so far six men have been arrested in connection with the exam fraud committed with the help of electronic gadgets, and the extent of cheating could be bigger. “I feel what we have seen is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
According to him, the arrested men were paid for impersonating and writing the exam on behalf of the job aspirants who were willing to part with a huge amount of money.
He said the imposters got a minimum of Rs 1 lakh for appearing in one exam and there is information that they have appeared in several other exams in the past. “This aspect will be thoroughly investigated. We are starting an investigation that will continue for a long time,” he said.
According to sources, the police will collect CCTV visuals from the exam centres and will pursue other digital trials also to examine whether those who had appeared from Haryana for the exams were imposters. The sources added that the imposters were dictated by subject experts, who delivered answers through electronic gadgets.
“The subject experts too received huge amounts from the racket involved in exam cheating. There are multiple rackets that are involved in the malpractice. They procure the electronic gadgets, arrange imposters and subject experts and then find job aspirants, who are willing to pay huge amounts and don’t mind being part of the fraud to land a government job, “ sources added.
Technical probe on
The cyber police station in Thiruvananthapuram is conducting a probe into the technical aspects of the case. Cyber police sources said the impersonators used mobile phones, Bluetooth earbuds and a special electronic gadget that helped them receive the calls from subject experts.
The investigators felt the subject experts could also be from Haryana, but they are yet to confirm it. Those arrested, according to the sleuths, feigned ignorance and said they were not aware of the identity of the subject experts.
“The probe will take some time as we have a lot of ground to cover. What we assume is that those arrested did not know each other and are part of various rackets,” an officer added.