SI PAPER LEAK: GANG BUSTED

The STF on Tuesday busted the gang involved in the leakage of police recruitment examination paper and arrested its seven members in Lucknow. It was revealed that the plan to leak the question paper of the online test for the recruitment of sub-inspector in UP police was hatched in Palwal (Haryana) , where the mastermind is lodged.

LUCKNOW: The special task force (STF) on Tuesday busted the gang involved in the leakage of police recruitment examination paper and arrested its seven members in Lucknow.

It was revealed that the plan to leak the question paper of the online test for the recruitment of sub-inspector in UP police was hatched in Palwal (Haryana) district jail, where the mastermind of the gang Saurabh Jhakhar is lodged on charges of question paper leak and murder.

The online test was being conducted in phases and the leakage came to light during the examination on July 24.

The STF arrested on Tuesday Gaurav Anand, the owner of Om Group of Institutions in Agra from where the question paper was leaked. Gaurav is the brother of Saurabh Jhakhar.

IT head of the institute Balram, invigilator Puhpendra Singh, broker Gaurav Khatri and candidates Dinesh Kumar, Deepak Kumar and Rakesh Vishwakarma were also taken into custody.

The accused were called by the STF at cyber police station here for interrogation and were taken into custody.

Addressing media persons, inspector general (STF) Amitabh Yash said the question paper was leaked with the use of remote access tool on computers installed at the examination centre – Om Group of Institutions.

“The software was installed by Gaurav with the help of IT head and invigilators to get access to other computers at remote locations,” he said.

Earlier, the gang had also leaked question papers of online recruitment tests conducted by Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments.

NSEIT, a Mumbai-based company that was hired by the UP Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRPB) to conduct the online test, is also under the STF scanner.

The role of UPPRPB officials in the question paper leak is also being probed.

The gang had demanded Rs 10 lakh each from candidate for the question papers.

Several candidates had paid ₹3 lakh in advance and the remaining amount was to be paid after the announcement of the result.

“Solvers were provided the user ID and password of the candidates’ computers through WhatsApp. After getting access to the examinee’s computer, they solved the question paper from a remote spot,” he IG said.

Yash said the STF found that NSEIT had not followed the norms laid under the Information Security Policy while conducting the online test.

“It also overlooked the physical, administrative and technical counter measures. The STF is also conducting a security audit of all the tests conducted by the company,” he said.

The leaked question paper of the test scheduled for July 24 was circulated on the social media after which UPPRPB cancelled the examination.

NSEIT also lodged an FIR at the cyber police station in Lucknow.

The IG said a candidate, Rakesh Kumar Vishwakarma, was also nabbed by the STF for leaking the question paper physically in Allahabad.

“The police are grilling Vishwakarma to collect information about the gang involved in the leak of the question paper in Allahabad. More arrests will be made soon,” he said.