PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE /Dehradun
The Special Task Force (STF) busted a cheating racket I the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) Multi-Tasking (Non-Technical) Staff and Havaldar Recruitment Examination 2025. The STF arrested two accused identified as Nitish Kumar, a resident of Deoria (Uttar Pradesh) currently living in Delhi, and Bhaskar Naithani, a resident of Nathuwala in Dehradun.
According to inspector general of police Nilesh Anand Bharne, the exam was conducted in online mode on Friday. The police raided the examination centre while the exam was going on. The exam was being held in three halls, and around 300 students were present at that time. The STF team caught the accused red-handed during the raid. He said that the candidate would sit in the exam hall only by name and his photo would appear on the screen, but the question paper was actually being solved by someone else sitting at a different location. Explaining the cheating method, he said that the accused used to obtain the candidate’s IP address, through which the question paper would reach them. They would then forward the question paper to another location where it was solved. From there, the answers were submitted online. He added that this racket had been running for a long time and further investigation is currently underway.
Acting on specific inputs, STFs of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh carried out a joint raid at Mahadev Digital Zone located in MKP Inter College, Dehradun. During the raid, officials found a hidden underground chamber in a UPS room near the exam lab. Two laptops and a router were found in working condition, which were being operated remotely to help candidates solve their question papers.
Police said the accused were demanding Rs 10 lakh from each candidate with the promise of helping them pass the examination. The team seized two Dell laptops, a router, ethernet cables, a connector adaptor and four mobile phones from the spot. The examination centre was sealed after the action. A case has been registered at Kotwali Dehradun under the Uttarakhand Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Act, 2023, along with relevant sections of the BNS and IT Act. The STF stated that strict action is being taken under the directions of the Uttarakhand government to stop cheating in competitive exams. Police teams are now searching for other members of the gang and further investigation is underway.
