First hi-tech recruitment scam under AAP government busted by Patiala police; ball in government’s court
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
Patiala police has busted the first hi-tech recruitment scam of AAP government.
Inspector General of Patiala range Mukhwinder Singh Chinna along with senior superintendent of police Varun Sharma today disclosed the busting of “Naib Tehsildar” exams conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), which was held in May 2022.
As per IG Chinna, “they have intimated the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), the recruiting agency and the financial commissioner revenue (FCR), Punjab government about the registration of case against the five facilitators in this examination. They also informed them that the investigation is on in this case.” He added that no candidate, who got selected in this recruitment is arrested in this case.
A Punjab government officer on the condition of anonymity said” now the ball is in state government court, whether to cancel the whole exam, as the previous government did in last year Punjab police recruitment case or to cancel the accused candidates results.”
As per IG Chinna, a case FIR No. 238, dated 11.11.2022 u/s 419, 420, 465, 468, 471, 120B IPC, 66D IT ACT 2008, was registered at PS Kotwali in Patiala on the basis of a secret information that few persons have helped the candidates, who appeared for various recruitment exams held for government jobs to clear the test by using fraudulent means like electronic devices to communicate the correct answers to the questions in lieu of hefty amount of money from them.
In this connection, five persons namely Navraaj Chaudhary and Gurpreet Singh of village Dedna in Patiala, Jatinder Singh of village Bhullan in Patiala, Sonu Kumar of village Ramna Ramani in Haryana and Varjinder Singh of village Nachar Khera, Jind in Haryana have been arrested.
The arrested persons have revealed during the investigation that they provided candidates GSM devices with SIM cards inserted in it and very small bluetooth ear buds for seamless connectivity. The candidate would carry the GSM device by concealing it, usually in shoes/socks etc. Thereafter, during the exam hours, the candidate would use previously agreed signals such as coughing/ tapping to communicate the test booklet series received by him to the person who is deputed for dictating the answers. The arrested accused and their associates would accordingly dictate the correct answers to the candidates during the test.
The arrested accused Varjinder Singh s/o Satyavan r/o Nachar Khera, Jind, Haryana, disclosed that dummy candidates, who had applied for the exams purely for the purposes of capturing the picture of question papers with the help of wireless cameras, would then send it outside to predetermined persons. The subject matter experts of different subjects from outside locations like Haryana, who had already been roped in this criminal conspiracy, would then solve the questions and accordingly answer key was prepared. The answer key was then dictated to the candidates via GSM/ bluetooth device.
According to the disclosure of the arrested persons, in this criminal conspiracy/ racket, at least 7 to 10 more persons are yet to be arrested who belong to Haryana and Punjab.
As per the investigation done so far by the Patiala police, this group has confessed to have provided their illegal services to quite a few candidates in the recently held Naib-Tehsildar recruitment exam conducted by Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala. Such candidates are being identified by the investigation team.
Police has so far recovered 11 GSM devices, 7 mini bluetooth ear buds, 12 mobiles, 1 laptop, 2 pen drives, etc. which were used by the scamsters during the exam process.
As confessed by Navraaj Chaudhary and Gurpreet Singh, they have fetched the candidates and provided SIM cards for communication during the exam to the candidates who appeared for Naib-Tehsildar recruitment exam which was held in May, 2022.
During the investigation, it has come to light that Jatinder Singh was in contact with Haryana based kingpin of exam scam and he played key role in the scam by way of fetching candidates for the exam and arranging communication devices. Sonu Kumar has revealed that he dictated answers to the candidates in Patiala during Naib-Tehsildar recruitment exam with the help of GSM devices.
First hi-tech recruitment scam under AAP government busted by Patiala police; ball in government’s court. The investigation is on added IG Chinna.
November 15,2022
