SSC exam paper leak: Four men arrested; accused took remote access of candidates' computers

Four men were arrested for their alleged involvement in an organised racket of cheating in online examinations being conducted by the Staff Selection Commission, police said on Wednesday.

In a joint operation conducted by Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task Force and Special Staff, North District, Paramjeet Singh (24), Ajay Kumar (30), Sonu Kumar (31) and Gaurav Nayyar (24) were arrested yesterday, they added.

On Tuesday, UP STF Meerut informed their counterparts in north district that they had information that one person named Harpal, apparently working in the Delhi government's Sales Tax Department was running a cheating racket from his residence in Gandhi Vihar, Timarpur, the police said.

Subsequently, a team of officials of UP STF and north district conducted a raid at the given address. There Ajay, Sonu, Gaurav and Paramjeet were found working on laptops and phones.

It was found that they were assisting candidates through a remote access application, namely Team Viewer, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North)Jatin Narwal.

Three laptops, 10 mobile phones, an external hard disk, a white colour tender router, four pen drives, a wi-fi device, five blue tooth devices were seized from the spot, he added.

Some loose papers with names and roll numbers of candidates were also seized besides Rs 51,83,700, that had been collected from the students.

During interrogation, it was found that the cheating racket was being run in an organised manner. The gang members had hacked into the online system and would assist students taking the exams.

The prospective candidates were lured and charged anywhere between Rs five to 10 lakh and get to know about their respective centres of examination.

This gang was alleged to have network with the centres of the examination and computer labs across various cities.

These labs were outsourced by the SSC for conducting the examination. Harpal and the other accused were also running labs in different parts of the city which are further hired by the outsourced labs for conducting the examinations, the officer said.

Harpal is yet to be arrested.

The accused, Paramjeet Singh, is a resident of Bahadurgarh, Haryana and is a BE in computers from PDM College, Haryana. Ajay Kumar is a resident of Vats Colony, Bahadurgarh and has a masters degree in Hindi. Sonu Kumar, a resident of Bhopure, UP, is a graduate. Gaurav Nayyar, a resident of Timarpur, has completed his bachelors in computer application.