Undies with SIM cards, spy cams used in AIPMT copying racket

The nationwide ring charged Rs 20 lakh each to help candidates crack entrance exam and has been operating for years.

Undergarments f i t t ed with micro- SIM devices with hidden wiring, wristwatches with spy cameras, bluetooth devices, difficultto-detect ear plugs and the use of WhatsApp and other messaging services made it possible for answer keys to sent to students in examination centres across the country in the All India PreMedical Test (AIPMT), because of which the Supreme Court scrapped the results this week and ordered fresh examinations.

As many as 358 mobile numbers were pressed into service and 300 vests were fitted with SIMs, according to a Haryana Police officer investigating the case. The case has also revealed the dangerous fact that such methods have been successfully used in the past also. Vijay Yadav, one of the arrested accused, told the police that he and one Rahul Verma were able to crack the test last year using these methods. Yadav is now an MBBS student at a prestigious institute. No one has any idea how many such candidates have got into medical school.

Haryana police officers say that in this case, the accused used a hard to detect method. The Rohtak police got a complaint on 3 May, the day of examination, and swung into action. They intercept- ed a car driven by Dr Bhupender Singh, whose mobile phone had the answer keys. The keys had been forwarded to other numbers.

What the police recovered from other passengers of the car revealed the entire racket. From Ravi, an MBBS student, and others in the car, the police recovered a carton contain- ing four vests with microSIM devices, Bluetooth devices, data cables and a spy camera-studded wrist watch.

Further interrogation revealed that the gang was charging Rs 20 lakh from each candidate seeking help to crack the AIPMT. The agents who got candidates on board would to get a third of the money.

The plan was that the main accused, Roop Singh Dangi would leak the question paper from Behror in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, and after preparing the answer key, he would pass it to Dr Bhupender, Ravi and others through mobile phone.

An electronic shop owner in Delhi, Subhash Shrivastav, was engaged to provide undergarments with SIM devices. The accused told the police that Shrivastav said that as this was illegal, he would charge four times the price of the garments. They said that they paid Shrivastav Rs 60,000 for six such garments.