UP STF busts SSC exam-rigging racket in Greater Noida; 7 held

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force STF has busted an alleged racket involved in rigging Staff Selection Commission SSC online recruitment examinations using proxy servers and dummy candidates, arresting seven people from Greater Noida, officials said on Saturday.The accused were allegedly manipulating SSC examinations for recruitment of constables in the CAPF Central Armed Police Forces and SSF Secretariat Security Force, and riflemen in the Assam Rifles, at an online examination centre operating under the name Balaji Digital Zone in the Knowledge Park area.The racket was busted on Friday.

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has busted an alleged racket involved in rigging Staff Selection Commission (SSC) online recruitment examinations using proxy servers and dummy candidates, arresting seven people from Greater Noida, officials said on Saturday.

The accused were allegedly manipulating SSC examinations for recruitment of constables in the CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) and SSF (Secretariat Security Force), and riflemen in the Assam Rifles, at an online examination centre operating under the name ''Balaji Digital Zone'' in the Knowledge Park area.

The racket was busted on Friday. Those arrested were identified as Pradeep Chauhan of Muzaffarnagar, Arun Kumar of Mathura, Sandeep Bhati and Nishant Raghav of Bulandshahr, Amit Rana and Shakir Malik of Baghpat, and Vivek Kumar of Bulandshahr, it said.

The STF recovered Rs 50 lakh in cash, 10 mobile phones, five laptops, a router, a list of candidates, two admit cards, and four entry and identity cards of the company ''Eduquity'' from their possession.

Additional Superintendent of Police, STF Field Unit Noida, Raj Kumar Mishra, said the arrests were made around 5.20 pm following intelligence inputs about alleged malpractice at the examination centre.

''The gang was facilitating cheating in the examination by deploying proxy servers and seating their own proxy candidates in place of the actual examinees,'' Mishra said.

The alleged kingpin, Chauhan, who holds an M.Com degree from Meerut College, had established the online examination centre in Greater Noida and had been involved in manipulating online examinations for a long time, the STF said.

Mishra said the examination at the centre was being conducted by the company ''Eduquity'' at the time of the raid.

During interrogation, Chauhan allegedly disclosed that co-accused Rana devised a system through which examination papers were solved remotely using a ''solver'' by bypassing the company's server through a screen-sharing viewer application and proxy server.

Arun Kumar, who initially joined the centre as an invigilator around two-and-a-half years ago and later became its IT head, was allegedly responsible for installing the proxy server at the centre, the STF said.

The STF further said Bhati worked as a lab supervisor for companies such as Mary Track and Dylesis and was tasked with identifying candidates willing to pay money for getting their papers solved.

Among those arrested, Vivek Kumar and Shakir Malik were candidates allegedly brought to the centre by Bhati for the racket.

According to the STF, the syndicate charged around Rs 4 lakh per candidate. Of this, Rs 50,000 was allegedly kept by the person arranging the candidate, while the remaining Rs 3.5 lakh was distributed among Chauhan, Rana, and the solver.

The STF said raids were underway to arrest four other members of the gang who are currently absconding.