New Delhi: In a multi-city swoop, CBI on Saturday busted a gang allegedly involved in a cheating racket, arresting 17 people who were facilitating copying using high profile gadgets in a post-doctoral entrance exam.
During a surprise check by CBI in Chandigarh, it was found that some women candidates were using sophisticated equipment like camera, phones, bluetooth to transmit the question paper to people outside during the examination for MD courses conducted by PGIMER Chandigarh, an official said.
The information was received outside by seven people who were co-ordinating the operation and using experts from Patna and Hyderabad to get the paper solved.
The coordinators were then communicating the answers to candidates inside using sophisticated devices, the CBI said in a statement.
The students as well as experts nabbed in the synchronised operation are being probed.
Sophisticated equipment including laptops, micro earphones, bluetooth devices, special clothes fitted with devices, button-hole cameras, tablet computer, wireless ear plugs, electric solders, fitting equipments, as well as cash were recovered in the searches.
According to preliminary information, the gang was allegedly involved in a number of similar rackets that worked in national level entrance examinations, and is being probed.
In Chandigarh, CBI`s DIG Mahesh Aggarwal said seven medical students were caught using hi-fi gadgets to cheat during the exam from four separate centres.
"We acted on a tip off and caught the girls, hailing from different parts of India, from four centres here. We also checked all the remaining seven centres where the examination was under progress," he said.
"The modus operandi adopted by the accused was that they were sending out question papers using these gadgets and answers were being passed back to them through the same route," Aggarwal said.
In one case, a miniature device, which a girl had kept plugged inside her ear, got embedded inside, sources said, adding that she had to undergo a surgical procedure at PGIMER to take it out.
"We have booked the accused for cheating," Aggarwal said.
About 7,000 aspirants from various parts of the country were taking the examination, which is conducted twice a year, PGIMER`s spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar said.
PTI
