PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
Dehradun police in coordination with the Special Task Force (STF) arrested alleged exam cheating racket leader Hakam Singh and his aide Pankaj Gaur on Saturday, a day before the Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission (UKSSSC) conducted its graduate-level written examination for multiple departments.
The joint operation was carried out after police received information that Singh was demanding Rs 15 lakh each from six candidates in exchange for passing them in the exam. Acting on the tip-off, the police set a trap and detained Singh and Gaur in Patelnagar, Dehradun, the senior superintendent of police officer STF Navneet Singh Bhullar said.
He informed that Singh has previously served jail time in similar fraud cases. He disclosed that the accused lured candidates by promising success in the UKSSSC exam in return for payments ranging between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 15 lakh. He further explained that if candidates cleared the exam on their own, Singh and his aide planned to keep the money. If they failed, the gang intended to retain them in the racket by offering to adjust the money for future exams.
The Dehradun SSP Ajai Singh also stated that the case does not indicate any breach of exam secrecy or fairness. The arrests were made under the Uttarakhand Competitive Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Ordinance, 2023. Inspector Mukesh Tyagi of the Special Operations Group registered the case at Patelnagar police station. The UKSSSC exam for graduate-level positions across various departments was scheduled to held on Sunday with police and STF on alert due to concerns about cheating rackets.
Singh said that anticipating that anti-social groups might become active during the UKSSSC examination and attempt to mislead candidates, the Dehradun Police along with the STF had already placed certain suspects under tight surveillance. He further stated that two days earlier, confidential inputs revealed that a network was approaching candidates and demanding large payments while falsely promising to secure their success in the exams. Investigations confirmed that Pankaj Gaur, in contact with Hakam Singh, had approached candidates and demanded large sums with the promise of securing exam success.
It is pertinent to mention here that Hakam Singh has long been associated with such cases. Considered one of Uttarakhand’s most prominent figures in exam paper leaks, he had served 13 months in jail before obtaining bail from the Supreme Court. His activities, exposed around July 2022, deeply affected the State’s youth, leaving many sincere aspirants feeling deceived and demoralised. His earlier actions resulted in multiple exam cancellations, including the graduate-level recruitment test on December 5, 2021, the online Forest Inspector recruitment test held between July 16 and 21, 2021 and the Secretariat Guard recruitment test on September 26, 2021.
Officials said that the police continue to investigate the network and its possible links to earlier exam fraud cases.
