Karnataka PSI scam: Arrests cross 100 mark, 19 candidates used Bluetooth devices to cheat

The new arrests have also taken the total arrests in the police sub-inspector recruitment exam past 100.

The latest arrests have occurred after the CID officials mined the cell usage data from the cell phone tower dumps for October 3, 2021, and found that candidates, who wrote the exams in Bengaluru, Tumkur and Dharwad, were using mobile devices while they were supposed to be writing the entrance exam.

The CID finding shows that three more candidates — Lakappa in Bengaluru, Shrisail Biradar in Tumkur and Shrimant Satapur in Dharwad — were provided answers during the exam via Bluetooth devices by the associates located at different places.

Lakappa, who wrote the exam at the New Horizon College in east Bengaluru, obtained the sixth rank from the Kalyan Karnataka region by securing 21.5 marks out of 50 in the essay portion and 135 out of 150 in the objective part of the exam.

While as many as 28 candidates, who wrote the exams at the centres in Bengaluru, have been arrested after their OMR sheets were found to have been modified for securing high marks by the officials of the police recruitment cell. Lakappa is the first candidate, who wrote the exam in Bengaluru, to be arrested for cheating with a Bluetooth device to secure high marks.

Shrisail Biradar, a candidate who wrote the exam at the Siddalingeshwara Residential High School at Kyathasandra in Tumkur district and secured the 57th rank (35.5 marks in the essay and 108.75 percent in the objective part), and Shrimant Satapur, a candidate who wrote the exam at the St Joseph’s College at Dharwad and secured the 63rd rank (16/50 in the essay and 127.5/150 in the objective part), are the other two candidates arrested last week by the CID for using Bluetooth devices to cheat.

“There have been a total of 102 arrests till now and this includes 52 candidates. Out of the 52 arrested candidates, 19 have been named for cheating using Bluetooth devices and 33 through the recruitment cell (28 candidates) or with the help of staff at the exam center (five candidates),” police sources said.

The analysis by the CID of cell phone tower dump data along with data provided by various telecom service providers regarding the cell numbers that were in use on October 3, 2021, around the exam centres has resulted in the filing of eight FIRs over the last two months including three last week.

TAhe CID officials earlier analyzed cell usage data for the Sri Sharanabasaveshwar College of Arts, Science and Commerce, the Godutayi College for Women at Vidyanagar, and the Government Degree College in Kalaburagi for October 3, 2021, and found cell numbers that were active for long periods between 3 pm and 4.30 pm when the objective portion of the exam was being conducted.

The analysis of the phone numbers involved in long conversations at the colleges revealed that they involved chats by seven candidates — Bhagavatharaya, Raviraj, Kallappa, Peerappa, Sharanbasappa, Siddugouda, and Balwantappa — with an answering team constituted by the exam racket kingpin, R D Patil, to provide answers via Bluetooth devices to the candidates, who had paid huge amounts.

The CID probe has found that candidates, who had paid the middleman R D Patil in the range of Rs 30 lakh to Rs 80 lakh to be selected as police sub-inspectors were provided access to members of an answering team constituted by Patil to cheat in the exam. The answering team members provided answers to the candidates they were paired with via the Bluetooth devices carried by the candidates. The police were able to identify candidates who were involved in cheating in the exam by finding the persons in whose names the SIM cards used for the long conversations during the exam – extracted from the cell tower data – were registered.

The CID has registered as many as 20 FIRs and nine of the top 10 rank winners have been arrested. Additional Director General of Police Amrit Paul, who headed the police recruitment cell when the scam occurred, was arrested by the CID on July 4. He was named in the chargesheet filed by the CID last month in a PSI exam scam case. As many as 12 policemen have also been arrested by the CID. Out of 102 people arrested since the CID probe began in April, five persons accused of sheltering the main perpetrators have obtained bail.