By Ajay Kumar
Patna, Feb 26 (IANS) The trend of leaked question papers is not new in Bihar. The criminals in this business were generally well educated who were capable of cracking the competitive examinations.
Bihar is a state where the status of a person is judged only by the post they are holding in government sectors. Hence, a large number of youths have only one ambition — to obtain a government job either through merit or in a fraudulent manner. Since, the jobs are limited in Bihar and in the country, many less meritorious but financially sound aspirants opt for a fraudulent path to land the job.
As a result, an organized job racket developed in the state and scholars got involved in this business as big money is involved in it. One such scholar was Ranjit Kumar Singh alias Ranjit Don alias Guru Ghantal, a native of Khaddi Lodhipur village under Hilsa block in Nalanda district.
Ranjit Don had passed the MBBS examination in 1994 and took admission in the first year in Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH). During investigation, it was found that he had submitted fake certificates. At that time, the investigators alleged that he cracked the medical examination in a fraudulent manner.
Following that incident, Ranjit Don was allegedly involved in the CAT paper leak case. He was the kingpin of the solver gang and was also able to leak the question papers.
Initially, the case was investigated by the local police and later it was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI launched a thorough probe and the kingpin emerged as Ranjit Don. He served a jail term of one and a half years.
Besides CAT, Ranjit Don was also involved in the All India Medical PG Entrance Test, medical paper leak, CBSE paper leak and in Madhya Pradesh’s biggest scam, Vyapam. The investigating agency evaluated his wealth at Rs 1000 crore.
The process of filling the forms online started around 2010 but before that the forms were filed through post. In that case, the agencies which were conducting the examinations used to allot roll numbers to candidates based on the date of the receipt of their envelopes.
The criminals in this business started sending 5 to 7 application forms in one envelope. They used the code words “Engine and Bogie” in this modus operandi where ‘Engine’ meant the scholars and ‘Bogie’ was used for the actual candidates.
They would find 5 to 7 applications in one envelope and they alloted the roll numbers accordingly in serial fashion. In this way, all 5 to 7 candidates had roll numbers of the same examination centre, the same examination hall and they were sitting one after another. Out of 7 candidates, three of them were scholars and they knew the answers to all the questions. They passed the right answers to the four actual candidates and they easily passed the examination.
An official revealed that people like Ranjit Don had used the same modus operandi and earned more than Rs 1000 crores.
During the investigation, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) which was investigating that case, arrested the kingpin of the racket named Sanjiv Kumar alias Guri Ji from Noor Sarai in Nalanda district and his aide Abhishek Kumar of Sheikhpura district.
Sanjiv and Abhishek were associated with Ranjit Don.
Among the network of schools, colleges and coaching institutions, Sanjiv always introduced himself as Assistant Professor of a college in Bhagalpur to lure candidates. He was involved in fraudulently appearing in the examinations since 2010 and was arrested for the first time in 2012. At that time, his partner Abhishek was also arrested by the Bihar police. They served a jail term of 10 months in Beur central prison, Patna.
After being released from jail, they were again involved in the same offence and served jail terms in Phulwarisharif district jail for four months.
Sanjiv had established contacts with coaching institutions and colleges in several districts of Bihar and managed to find candidates who were ready to pay money to pass the examinations.
Sanjiv and Abhishek worked for Ranjit Don as touts. Their job was to contact students who wanted to pass the examination through money power. After the arrest of Ranjit Don, they took charge of the solver gang. Abhishek finally obtained a government job and broke his partnership with Sanjiv.
Sanjiv also had close ties with leaders at the local level. This was the reason why the local police were not touching him. He had also launched his wife in politics in Nalanda district.
The solver gang and leaking the question papers are the two main ways of rigging in the competitive examinations.
The EOU had arrested Nilesh Kumar alias PK on the charge of rigging in the prestigious NEET examination on February 26. Nilesh was the kingpin of the solver gang. At that time, the sleuths raided the premises of a senior doctor and some medical PG students. Nilesh used to take the help of PG students as scholars.
The modus operandi of sacked DSP Ranjit Rajak was more interesting and different from Ranjit Don.
During investigation, it was learnt that he established contact with the candidates and instructed them not to fill the answer sheets (OMR sheets) apart from their names, roll number etc. Rajak had contacts in the nodal agencies conducting the exams. He obtained those blank answer sheets and filled them with the right answers.
The same modus operandi was being used in the mains examinations as well. These candidates would obtain the maximum marks and make it to the merit list despite a low score in the oral exam.
–IANS
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