Lucknow, March 25 The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Wednesday claimed to have busted a gang involved in facilitating cheating in competitive examinations by using forged Persons with Disabilities (PwD) certificates and arranging scribes in violation of rules.
According to an STF statement, the arrests were made following an operation linked to irregularities in the CBSE-conducted EMRS (Eklavya Model Residential Schools) recruitment examination (Tier-2) for the post of Junior Secretariat Assistant between March 22 and 25.
The accused have been identified as Raj Kishor, Neeraj Jha, Satyam Kumar, Ram Milan, Manish Mishra, Akash Agarwal, Saurabh Soni, Abhishek Yadav and Deepak Kumar, hailing from different districts of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
The statement said the gang lured unemployed youths and their families with promises of helping them secure government jobs and charged hefty amounts. They allegedly arranged fake PwD certificates through intermediaries and ensured that candidates were declared eligible under the PwD category.
The accused also arranged professional solvers as scribes to appear in examinations on behalf of the candidates, thereby enabling them to secure jobs in government and public sector institutions, the STF said.
Acting on intelligence inputs, an STF team, under the supervision of Deputy Superintendent of Police Vimal Kumar Singh, conducted a raid at a CBSE examination centre at Central Academy, Sector 4, Vikas Nagar in Lucknow on Tuesday, it said.
Eight suspects were detained from the centre, while another accused was later brought from Gorakhpur for questioning. Based on interrogation and documentary evidence, all nine were arrested, it added.
During the operation, the STF recovered 13 mobile phones, two laptops, cash worth Rs 2.70 lakh, a Swift Dzire and six forged PwD certificates.
During questioning, Manish Mishra, the alleged kingpin, admitted to running a racket that deployed professional solvers as scribes at offline examination centres to assist candidates fraudulently, officials said.
A case has been registered against the accused at Vikas Nagar police station in Lucknow under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Uttar Pradesh Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. Further legal proceedings are underway, police said.