4 candidates among 7 held by UP Police in CSIR exam ‘cheating’ row

Among the arrested are the university’s IT manager Arun Sharma, lab assistant Vineet Kumar and NSEIT’s server operator Ankur Saini, police said. They identified the other arrested persons (candidates) only as Ankit, Tamanna, Monika and Jyoti — all hailing from Rohtak, Haryana.

According to the police, they received information on Friday about “potential mischief” during the CSIR NET online examination. An STF team soon reached the university’s premises. The examination was being conducted in six laboratories at the university, monitored by two nodal officers, Ankur Saini and Rahul, appointed by the
company.

The duties for the six laboratories were divided between Ankur and Rahul and the company provided bootable pen drives to run the required exam software on the lab systems, police said.

It was allegedly found that IT manager Arun Sharma had created an unauthorised system in his room, separate from the lab, with the assistance of the company’s server operator, allowing them to gain access to the lab and server.

This setup enabled some candidates to cheat and pass the exam. It is alleged that Arun Sharma persuaded Ankur and the other accused to join him in solving the exam papers from outside. They identified the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned to a group of candidates.

The police team also found a laptop with a remote access tool installed in the server room. The STF team also seized a mobile phone from Arun, in which they found the roll numbers and names of four candidates, as well as the IP addresses of their systems. Police said the IP addresses of the candidates’ systems were shared with a person, identified only as Ajay, outside the examination centre, enabling him to access the screens of the selected candidates.

Ajay roped in “solvers” to answer the questions and send the solutions back to the candidates, who had paid for this “illicit service,” police said.

To avoid detection during inspections, the accused used “start and stop” commands via mobile phones to temporarily halt their activities, officers added.

The STF team also retrieved details of 11 other candidates, who appeared in the first and second legs of the examination on July 25, from a deleted file on the phone recovered from Arun Sharma.

Officers said those running the racket were charging a significant amount of money from candidates for providing the service of “solvers” to complete their exam papers.