After a month-long investigation, police in Gujarat’s Mehsana district has unearthed an alleged racket wherein ineligible candidates (students) received help to acquire high scores in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) proficiency test to travel to Canada on student visas and then try and enter the US illegally, an official said, as per PTI. The Mehsana police has booked 45 persons and arrested 3 of them, including a student from Surat, in connection with the alleged racket, as stated in a report by PTI. A coaching class owner, Chief Executive of a private examination management and educational services company and nearly two dozen students have been booked in the racket, the official said as per PTI.
IELTS is an international standardised test of English language proficiency for non-native English speakers, with a good score being a prerequisite for admission into reputed colleges in several countries abroad.
How did the racket unfold?
Six youngsters from Gujarat, who were caught by the US border authorities in March this year during a failed attempt to enter America from Canada, failed to answer in English the questions asked by a US judge during a court hearing. Four of those six students were from different parts of Mehsana district and two were from Gandhinagar and Patan. The four students from Mehsana district were identified as Dhruv Patel, Neel Patel, Urvish Patel and Savan Patel.
The alleged mastermind of the racket, Amit Chaudhary, had taken between Rs 10 to 20 lakh each from 21 students and helped them score between 6 to 7 on the IELTS exam with the help of some staffers of Ahmedabad-based testing agency Planet EDU, said Inspector Bhavesh Rathod of the Mehsana police’s Special Operations Group (SOG), who was leading the probe, as per PTI.
An FIR has been filed against 45 persons, including Chaudhary, for cheating (Indian Penal Code section 420), criminal breach of trust (406), forgery (465) and criminal conspiracy (120-b), as per PTI. According to the FIR, Chaudhary and others had arranged proxy students, who were proficient in English, to give written exams for the actual candidates for the exam with the help of some Test Day Supervisors (TDS) and writing examiners appointed by testing agency Planet EDU, as per PTI.
All the six students from Gujarat who were caught are still in the US and working there. They are on bail and cannot leave the country till the pendency of the case against them, said the inspector, as per PTI.
