'hi-tech cheating' in Rajasthan Police entrance exam
Jaipur: The Rajasthan Police Constable Entrance Examination 2018 held recently was cancelled on Tuesday following reports of "hi-tech cheating" during the test, a senior official said.
The decision was at a high-level meeting -- chaired by Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Galhotra -- that was attended by several senior officials including Umesh Mishra, Assistant Director General (ADG) - Special Operations Group (SOG), and ADG (Headquarters) Rajiv Sharma, among others.
The entrance examination was the first leg of the process to recruit 5,290 constables in Rajasthan.
The online examination, held first time in the state for police recruitments, had commenced on March 7. But on March 12 and 14, cases of computer hacking were reported. The police also got information about an organised racket indulging in cloning of biometric identity.
According to reports, they even provided expert proxy examination solvers to answer the papers on behalf of real candidates.
An investigation was launched and 12 persons were initially rounded up. Later, as the probe progressed, more names surfaced. Till now, 27 persons have been arrested by the SOG over the hi-tech fraud.
Around 15 out of those arrested are highly-skilled IT professionals, and have in the past facilitated similar cheating in states like Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, among others.
According to Inspector General of Police (IG) Dinesh M.N., accused Atul Vatsa is a B.Tech student who adopted similar technique during a National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) in Delhi and was arrested by the police. He also has a case registered against him in Bihar.
Similarly, his accomplice Yogendra is an MBBS student in a Rohtak college, while Sandeep Kumar, their third helping hand, is preparing for his bank exams in Delhi.
The accused said they learnt the art of making thumb-print clone on youtube. "It taught us how to use fish oil, wax and fevicol to make this clone," one of the accused said. They would apply fish oil on applicant's thumb, put it on warm and soft wax and apply a film of fevicol on reverse finger print to obtain the clone after the fevicol dried.
The expert proxies used the cloned fingerprints to appear for exams. The cloned thumb-print was smartly affixed onto the thumb of the expert proxy examination writer. He could walk into the centre and sit in the examination on behalf of the applicant.
Informed sources said offline entrance examination would most likely replace the online model.
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NDA's win in Bihar Assembly bypolls a matter of concern: Prashant Kishor
Patna, Nov 23: Political strategist turned activist Prashant Kishor on Saturday dubbed as "a matter of concern" the NDA's win in assembly by-polls in Bihar despite "failure" of the BJP-led coalition to end the state's chronic backwardness during it's decades-long rule.
Talking to reporters here shortly after the results were out, Kishor also drew succour from the fact that his fledgling Jan Suraaj won "10 per cent" of the total votes polled in four seats, but rubbished the claim that it had played a role in the RJD's defeat in three of these.
"RJD is a 30-year-old party. The son of its state president finished third. Can Jan Suraaj be faulted for that? In Belaganj all Muslim votes went to the JD(U) candidate. In Imamganj, the Jan Suraaj cut into NDA votes. Else, the victory margin of (Union minister) Jitan Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha would have been bigger", asserted Kishor.
Notably, Imamganj, a reserved seat, was retained by Manjhi's daughter-in-law Deepa, who defeated the RJD candidate by a thin margin of less than 6,000 votes. Jan Suraaj candidate Jitendra Paswan finished third, polling more than 37,000 votes.
When pointed out that in three of the four seats, candidates of Jan Suraaj had polled less than one-sixth of the total votes and ran the risk of losing their deposits, Kishor shot back "That should not be a matter of concern (chinta ki baat). If there is a matter of concern, it is the ability of the NDA to make a clean sweep despite having ruled Bihar for so long and "failed" to end the state's backwardness".
The IPAC founder, who had a brief stint in the JD(U), insisted that the party's supremo Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, was a "spent force" and its candidate, former MLC Manorama Devi, had won on her own steam.
"We have always said that our fight is with NDA, not with RJD despite its claim of being the largest party in Bihar.....(but) Nitish Kumar is no factor. His party polled just about 11 per cent of total votes", said Kishor.
About his own party's inability to make a mark, Kishor said "We have secured 10 per cent votes..... in seats where Jan Suraaj had no presence since these areas were yet to be covered by my padyatra. Also, please note that we got our poll symbol after filing of nomination papers was over".
He also maintained that the Jan Suraaj will go solo in the assembly polls due next year when it will contest "all 243 seats".
"We were initially written off but by garnering about 10 per cent votes, in a state known to vote along predictable caste lines, we have proved a point. In the next few months we shall be strengthening the organization to ensure that vote share of the Jan Suraaj improves", he said.
