BHOPAL: Professional Examination Board (PEB) - the erstwhile Vyapam - has blacklisted two colleges and filed an FIR against five candidates of the Primary Teacher Eligibility Test (2020), held in March, for allegedly using unfair means. Investigators believe someone remotely solved the paper for them via an app.
One of the blacklisted colleges is owned by a minister. PEB will use neither of the colleges to hold exams now. Following the PEB complaint, MP Nagar police on Monday registered a case of fraud and forgery against the five candidates. Prior to the FIR, Madhya Pradesh State Electronic Development Corporation conducted an investigation.
Remote-access app used to cheat at exam
In the MPSEDC investigation, CCTV footage showed that during the period the accused candidates 'solved' most of the questions, their computer screens were found to be blinking and the candidates couldn’t have attempted the paper at the time, say sources. In fact, CCTV footage shows that the candidates weren’t even paying much attention to the screen when the questions were solved, sources said.
The technical team suspects that the computers of the accused candidates were remotely accessed through an application. Someone sitting outside the exam centre solved the papers for them, say investigators.
The complaint was filed by PEB exam controller Dr DK Agrawal on Monday. Investigation officer, SI RK Mishra, identified the accused candidates as Parat Singh Rawat, Bhuvnesh Sharma, Neelam Kemor, Nisha Solanki and Manoj Kumar Patel.
Manoj appeared for the exam at Gyanveer Institute in Sagar and the other four at Sarvdharm College in Gwalior. Nisha took the test on March 10, Manoj on March 25, and the three others on March 24.
On March 25, a day after Manoj took the test, screenshots of his computer screen went viral and came to the notice of PEB, said Mishra. When PEB and MPSEDC investigated it, they detected an alleged fraud and decided to inform police.
