Three held for cheating in Delhi Police examination at Farrukhnagar

:Police arrested three people, including the manager of a multinational firm and a scholar, on Friday for allegedly cheating in the Delhi Police Examination 2022. The scholar was found hiding inside the bathroom of a college in Farrukhnagar after he appeared for the exam impersonating a candidate.

Police said that the examination was being conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (Northern Region) for recruiting male constable drivers and the centre in question was the St. Andrews Institute of Technology and Management, Hailey Mandi. An Indian IT company with a multinational footprint was in charge of organising the exam and the arrested executive was caught by its own staffers, cops added.

The examination was held in three shifts on Friday and the incident came to light during the first shift which was scheduled from 9am to 10.30am. The third person who was arrested is the candidate whom the scholar replaced with the manager’s help. Officials suspect the involvement of a solver gang which might have even planned to leak the question paper.

According to police, the executive Tarun Shukla helped scholar Jaiveer Kumar enter the centre illegally and hid him in the bathroom on the second floor. Shukla later allegedly helped Kumar reach the seat and replace candidate Lalit Yadav. Kumar hails from Rohtak and Yadav from Mahendergarh, cops added. The company’s operation manager Vivek Bhardwaj, and his colleague Sunil Kumar, the test centre administrator (TCA), were on a round after the first shift started and found a visibly nervous Kumar in the bathroom. “They quizzed Kumar and he confessed to having entered inside the centre illegally to write the exam in place of Yadav who was seated inside a lab on the second floor,” a senior police officer said.

He said that the authorities then approached Yadav who also confessed to engaging Kumar in writing and clearing the examination on his behalf. “Yadav further confessed to being helped by Shukla in the entire endeavour. Looking at the severity of the matter, the IT company executives immediately contacted the Farrukhanagar police station,” the officer added. He said that a police team reached the spot soon after and brought the three men to the station for detailed interrogation.

According to Harinder Kumar, assistant commissioner of police (Pataudi), the mastermind of the con and three more suspects are involved in the racket. “Yadav was to pay ₹6 lakh after the examinations were cleared and an additional ₹6 lakh before his appointment,” he said. Kumar was promised ₹1 lakh and Shukla ₹50,000 for their jobs. “Shukla helped Kumar enter the centre 10 minutes after Yadav. He took him directly to the bathroom. Yadav left his seat and entered the bathroom after marking biometric attendance and Kumar replaced him with Shukla’s help,” ACP Kumar informed. “Kumar returned to the bathroom after completing the exam and Yadav replaced him to mark his biometric attendance once again before leaving the hall,” he added. The ACP further said the suspects might have committed forgery in other examinations too. He said Kumar was preparing for SSC competitive exams in Delhi.

Inspector Jitender Singh, station house officer, Farrukhnagar police station, said that the suspects were taken on two-day police remand for a thorough interrogation. “Investigation is underway and we don’t want to disclose anything at this stage,” he said. The SHO said police are trying to extract information from them to ascertain if there are more people involved.

Based on a complaint filed by Bhardwaj, an FIR against the suspects was registered under sections 34 (common intention), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code at Farrukhnagar police station on Friday night. The complainant said in the FIR that the company officials verified the allegations from CCTV camera footage and found that Shukla helped the scholar enter the gate and replace Yadav.