In May, the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) conducted a Naib Tehsildar exam, and the Patiala Police and Counter Intelligence unit claimed to have busted a gang involved in paper leaks.
A total of five members of the gang have been arrested for helping the candidates clear the exam. Police Inspector General of Patiala, Mukhwinder Singh Chhina, revealed that candidates who cheated to pass the examination were among the top scorers.
It has been identified that the accused are Navraj Choudhary, Gurpreet Singh, Harvinder Singh, Jatinder Singh, Sonu Kumar, and Jainpal Singh.
The accused, who have been charged under sections 419, 420, 468, 471 and 120 –B of the IPC and IT Act, had allegedly taken Rs 22 lakh from each candidate.
According to the police, the dummy candidates were sent to the examination centers, who brought back different sets of question papers with the help of wireless cameras to a control room set up in Haryana.
Answer keys were prepared in the control room by experts. A GSM and Bluetooth device was then used by the accused, who were sitting outside the examination centers, to dictate answers to their candidates.
Some of the toppers took GSM devices with SIM cards, right there in the testing centers, for cheating. In the scam, candidates and facilitators used 11 GSM devices, seven mini Bluetooth earbuds, 12 mobile phones, one laptop, and two pen drives.
As soon as the list was released in September, party leaders began leveling accusations of wrongdoing. There were allegations of a scam and cheating in the recruitment made by Sukhpal Singh Khaira of the Congress and Bikram Majithia of the SAD, as well as some aspirants.
A report of the cheating in the exam of the Naib Teshildar was already filed with the government and Punjab Public Service Commission, according to IG Mukhwinder Chinna. According to IG Chhina, on Tuesday evening, the candidates will be arrested once detailed information is gathered from the accused.
