Anand (PTI): An elaborate and sophisticated racket where fraudsters helped candidates aspiring to study abroad clear international English proficiency tests such as IELTS and TOEFL by using dummy examinees has been busted in Gujarat's Anand district, police said on Monday.
Following a raid on a building housing a college, one person, who worked as an employee of the racket's mastermind who is absconding, was arrested and electronic equipment worth Rs 3.78 lakh were seized, an official said.
The Anand district Cyber Crime Police Station uncovered the fraud following a tip-off and raided two rooms rented by a private entity on the second floor of Arts College in Anand town on June 20, Deputy Superintendent of Police J N Panchal told reporters.
According to police, a private company had set up an examination centre in these rooms for online tests, including TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), IELTS (International English Language Testing System) and other foreign-language proficiency examinations required for studying or working abroad.
An investigation revealed the alleged mastermind of the racket, Harshad Raval, and his partner Arth Bundela had rented the premises through a memorandum of understanding signed with the college around six months ago.
Explaining the modus operandi of the fraudsters, police said candidates appearing for the examinations would sit in designated booths, while dummy examinees would sit in an adjacent room to secretly solve the test papers on their behalf.
To execute the fraud, the accused had allegedly drilled holes through a common wall separating the test laboratory and another room. Using HDMI splitter adapters and connected computer systems, the examination screens were mirrored onto computers in the adjacent room, enabling proxy candidates to answer questions in real time, they informed.
"The actual candidate would be seated in an examination booth, but a dummy person sitting in another room would effectively take the test and ensure the candidate cleared it," Panchal stated.
During the raid, police arrested one Tarunkant Sharma, a resident of South Bopal in Ahmedabad, who was working at the centre as an employee of Raval, the alleged mastermind of the racket, he said.
Raval and Bundela were absconding and efforts were underway to trace and nab them, officials said.
A case has been registered three persons, Raval, Bundela and Sharma, under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy, as well as under Section 66D of the Information Technology Act.
Computer CPUs, mobile phones and other electronic devices used in the operation, collectively valued at Rs 3.78 lakh, were seized during the raid.
Preliminary interrogation suggested that while the premises had been rented around six months ago, the fraudulent operation had been functioning for nearly one-and-a-half months, police said.
Panchal said police are examining data recovered from the seized computers and mobile phones to ascertain how many candidates gave tests and the amounts they paid for securing favourable results.
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This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.