Caught cheating, man says he paid Rs 18 lakh for SSC paper

HALDWANI: Three examinees of the Combined Higher Secondary (10+2) Level Exam-2014, conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) were caught cheating in the MBPG College on Sunday. The examination is part of the recruitment process for clerical staff in various departments of the government of India. Of the three men caught, one told the invigilator that he had entered into a deal worth Rs 18 lakh to obtain copies of the question paper ahead of the examination.

No case has yet been registered in the matter as police officials had only received roll numbers of the candidates from the invigilators and no other details.

"We received a written complaint, but it contained only the roll numbers of aspirants caught cheating. It lacked address and other details. We asked for those details, but they did not come back with those," a police official said, on condition of anonymity.

Nodal officer for the examination and Haldwani sub-divisional magistrate Harveer Singh told TOI that admit cards, question papers, optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets and other material of the examinees found cheating had already been sealed and sent to the office of the staff selection commission. The college administration thus failed to provide all the details needed for a case to be registered.

"I have sent a letter to SSC office, seeking the other necessary details of the three examinees caught cheating, so a case can be registered. There is a possibility that some inter-state gang is operating behind this paper leak. Cases of such leaks have also been reported in Haridwar and Meerut," Singh said.

Two of examinees accused of cheating, identified as Sunil and Sushil, belong to Delhi. The third, Manoj, is from Haryana.

The invigilator said Sunil lost his cool when he was discovered cheating. "He blabbered in utter frustration, saying he had already paid Rs 10 lakh to a man named Rinku from Sonipat in Haryana. He had apparently entered into a deal with the man for Rs 18 lakh to get the question paper," Kochin Kumar, an invigilator, said.

Sushil, Sunil and Manoj, all in their 20s entered the college premises together, some 10 minutes after the examination had begun. They were allotted different rooms, according to their admit cards. The invigilators in the different rooms, on checking the material they carried into the examination hall, found that they had answers listed, as well as mobile phones.

"One of them had solutions of 35 questions," Kochin Kumar said.

There were 13 centres in Nainital district for the examination, which was organized in two shifts, morning and evening. While 8,094 candidates absented themselves, 6,912 candidates took the examination. Two more examinations are scheduled to be conducted by the SSC on November 9 and 16.