Shimla: Over three dozen people have been taken into police custody for allegedly cheating during the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) recruitment exam held here, with several candidates caught with suspicious electronic devices, police said on Monday.
A Special Investigation team (SIT) headed by an additional SP-rank officer has been constituted to probe the alleged cheating that happened on Sunday, they said.
Preliminary investigations suggested the candidates allegedly gave Rs 4-12 lakh to unknown handlers of the cheating to clear the exam, police said, adding that the involvement of a professional gang cannot be ruled out.
Police said several candidates, a majority of whom were from Haryana, were caught with bluetooth devices and tiny earpieces while another person was arrested for taking the test for a candidate in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.
The NVS exam for non-teaching posts is being held across the country to fill up around 1,377 posts.
A similar cheating incident is alleged to have happened at two exam centres in Uttarakhand capital Dehradun, and 17 candidates were allegedly caught with suspicious electronic devices.
According to police, invigilators at the New Shimla examination centre got suspicious when a candidate kept going to the toilet many times. Later on checking, a small spy earpiece and a bluetooth device was found in his possession.
Invigilators also checked other candidates who were present at the centre and found electronic devices from some other candidates. Around 40 candidates were caught with bluetooth devices and earpieces.
Meanwhile, a man was arrested in Shimla giving the test in place of another candidate.
Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Haryana, was caught by the invigilator when there was a mismatch of with the signature and photo present on the candidate Ajay Kumar's documents.
In total, five FIRs have been registered by the police against over three dozen candidates under relevant sections.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
