Used in recruitment fraud: Clothes with hidden pockets, spy devices in undergarments, hidden phones
Tailor-made T-shirts to hide camera phones, cellular spy devices hidden in undergarments, camouflaged bluetooth earbuds to receive answer keys and a dedicated team of racketeers remotely receiving questions and sending back answers: all these were part of several well-oiled systems recently busted by Pimpri-Chinchwad Police as part of its eight-month-long probe. The investigation has unearthed malpractices in 14 different government recruitment processes and led to 56 arrests till date.
On Wednesday, Pimpri-Chinchwad Police made public for the first time the outcome of its probe, which started in the first week of January with the arrest of three persons during the recruitment process of constables for the force. Till now, police have arrested 56 persons and booked 74 more for malpractices in multiple recruitment processes.
Those arrested and booked include candidates, dummy candidates, middlemen, those who provided and facilitated use of hidden electronic devices, people who helped prepare answer keys for the candidates, suspects who looked after financial transactions, the main racketeers and masterminds. Many of these people, other than candidates, are those who have appeared for these exams in the past multiple times and have gained in-depth understanding of these mechanisms as well as their loopholes, said police.
The investigation indicates that mainly two modus operandi were used by racketeers in these 14 processes: hidden electronic devices and dummy candidates.
Among the items seized by police during the probe are 76 cell phones and phone-based applications used for cheating, 66 GSM (global system of mobile communication) spy communication devices disguised as debit cards, nearly 100 skin-tone bluetooth earbuds, 22 walkie-talkie sets used used by the suspects to communicate with each other, some tailor-made clothing with inner pockets for camera phones and a number of undergarments used by the suspects to sneak in spy communication devices into exam halls.
These seizures have been made from six different places in Maharashtra where the written examination for recruitment of Pimpri-Chinchwad Police constables was held at 450 exam centres, and a total of 82,000 candidates appeared for the exam. Police have busted six interconnected modules operating from six places — Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Solapur.
Explaining how the electronic devices were used, a senior officer who is part of the investigation said, “In each of these modules, some designated candidates wore a T-shirt with a hidden slot on the chest, inside, to keep the cell phone. It also had a hole for the camera. As these candidates clicked images of the question papers, the photos were automatically sent to a designated mail address through an application. In a remote module, the racketeers then prepared answer keys. These answers were dictated to candidates who were wearing camouflaged earbuds connected to GSM spy communication devices hidden in their undergarments.”
Of the 82,000 candidates who appeared for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police exam, conducted in November and December 2021, 1,070 were finally selected. Police believe that as many as 30 candidates were selected through malpractice as they either used electronic devices or dummy candidates, and later clearing the physical exam. These 30 candidates have been disqualified and subsequently arrested. Among the 74 more booked, several are candidates who failed in spite of resorting to malpractice, as well as others who were part of the racket.
The investigation team from Pimpri-Chinchwad Police’s Crime Branch did not stop at the probe in their own recruitment process. The team kept digging further and managed to access mail accounts used by the racketeers to receive question papers and also retrieve some deleted mails.
The investigation pointed to the involvement of the same set of suspects and racketeers in 13 other government recruitment processes during 2021. These include recruitment for other police units, the State Reserve Police Force, Prison Guards, Health Department staffers, Talathi posts, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority staff and state forest guards, held at various places in Maharashtra. Pimpri-Chinchwad Police have intimated the authorities who conducted these exam processes and in most of cases, offences have been registered at respective places and the investigation has begun.
The probe has also revealed that selected candidates who made it to the final list paid up to Rs 8 lakh to the racketeers. At the beginning of the process, advance money to the tune of Rs 1 to 2 lakh was taken from every candidate approaching or being approached by the racketeers. The money flow is still being investigated by police and more details are expected to come up. More arrests are likely in the case and more names are likely to be added in the list of those booked, said police.
When asked about course corrections in the recruitment process, Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissioner Ankush Shinde said, “Some aspects certainly need to change. We will be conducting extensive training of the staff and officers who look after the recruitment process. The methods of entry-point checks and frisking are being made foolproof. Robust measures will be put in place to detect hidden electronic devices.”
