The Belagavi police arrested 12 persons on charges of helping candidates copy in the recently concluded KPTCL junior assistants’ recruitment examination.
The accused include candidates and their associates. They helped at least 13 candidates to copy using electronic devices at examination centres across North Karnataka.
Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Patil had formed two teams to investigate the issue. The accused include a vice-principal of a private college, his son, a guest lecturer, and relatives of some candidates.
The modus operandi was that they copied the question paper using smart watches and sent them using data transfer apps and micro-blogging sites. Guest lecturers and others who were sitting at far-off places answered the questions and sent back the answers to the smart watches of the candidates.
In one incident, Maruti Sonwane, and his son Sumit Kumar, had gone to an examination centre posing as journalists from a TV channel, obtained a copy of the question paper in the guise of inspecting them and photographed it. They sent it to some persons who wrote answers and sent them to the candidates. Apart from these, some persons who had aided the offence by supplying electronic equipment have also been booked.
Investigators seized three mobile phones and some gadgets such as smart watches from them. Mr. Patil said the teams were on the lookout for four more accused persons who were involved in the alleged offence.
