Cheating in UPSC: Technology, wife ‘helped’ IPS officer

HYDERABAD: IPS officer Safeer Karim who was caught red-handed while cheating in the UPSC (mains) examination in Chennai on Monday, trawled the darknet to find ways to beat invigilators at the exam centre. Karim used a micro camera mounted on his chest which was connected to Google drive. The camera would scan the paper and send it through the drive to the intended recipient.

HYDERABAD: IPS officer Safeer Karim who was caught redhanded while cheating in the UPSC (mains) examination in Chennai on Monday, trawled the darknet to find ways to beat invigilators at the exam centre.

Karim used a micro camera mounted on his chest which was connected to Google drive. The camera would scan the paper and send it through the drive to the intended recipient, in this case, his wife Joicy Joyce who was in Hyderabad. Joyce would answer orally into his Bluetooth headset.

Joyce was allegedly assisted by an associate named Dr P Rambabu, director of La Excellence IAS Study Circle at Ashoknagar in Hyderabad, who provided the hi-tech support.

On Tuesday, Hyderabad police arrested Joyce and Rambabu for allegedly helping Karim cheat in the civil services examination.

“We have handed both the accused to a team of Chennai police headed by a DCP rank officer P Aravindan.

They are interrogating the accused now in Hyderabad, before taking them to Chennai,” Hyderabad central zone task force inspector S Srinivas Rao told Hindustan Times.

The task force also seized computer hard disks, laptops, an iPad and other gadgets from them and handed them over to the Chennai police. Karim was serving as an additional superintendent of police in Tamil Nadu.

“Both Karim and Joyce are from Kerala. He was selected for IPS in 2015 and underwent training at the Sardar Vallabbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad... But, he was not satisfied with the selection for IPS. Keen on becoming IAS, he resorted to the malpractice,” the police official said.