New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has started conducting the examination for the recruitment of police constables, six months after the original schedule was cancelled following widespread complaints of question paper leak and other irregularities.
This time, too, there have been cases of impersonation, use of unfair means and defrauding candidates by promising them leaked copies of the question paper. There have also been unconfirmed social media posts on alleged paper leak but the government has strongly denied any possibility of the question paper being leaked and dismissed such reports as misleading and rumour-mongering. It has also threatened to take strict action against those who spread unverified rumours about paper leak.
The state government is conducting the examinations over five working days, August 23, 24, 25, 30 and 31, in two shifts daily. Around 50 lakh candidates have applied for 60,244 police constable positions.
In just the first two days (August 23 and 24), police arrested at least 20 persons on allegations of using unfair means, defrauding candidates for money, impersonation and using fake documents. This included a female police constable.
In Bijnor, some candidates — two, according to the police — at the KPS Kanya Inter College exam centre alleged that the question papers they received were unsealed. The candidates suspected that the paper might have been leaked. Rajeev Krishna, chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRB), which conducts the examination, dismissed the possibility of a paper leak, saying that the cartons, boxes and packets carrying the question papers were found with their seals intact.
“We have electronic and photographic evidence of it,” said Krishna, adding that they had gone through the CCTV footage of the entire chain of custody.
Krishna said that while the question papers were sealed as per procedure, two of them did not have the stickers that they were supposed to have on them. “This is not a case of any kind of leak, I want to make it clear,” said Krishna.
Superintendent of Police Bijnor Abhishek said that “maybe it was a packaging error” that led to the absence of the stickers on two question paper packets.
Given the high political damage the cancellation of the state police constable recruitment exam in February caused to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the general election, chief minister Adityanath promised that all the measures would be taken to ensure a fair and smooth examination.
In a way, given the scale of the examination and its political timing, right before the bypoll elections to 10 assembly seats, conducting it smoothly and without any hiccups has become a major challenge for the Adityanath government. The government is already in a fix regarding the complicated legal issue of recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers in the state through the correct procedure of reservations.
In Lucknow, the UPPRPB also got an FIR lodged against unknown persons after a video was shared on social media site X claiming to display an alleged leaked copy of the question paper. The video was shared at 5:30 pm on August 23, after the day’s examinations were concluded, by “some anti-social elements,” with the “intention of affecting the examination and to cheat candidates,” said the UPPRPB.
The board said that the malicious post was to spark public outrage and doubt among the candidates regarding the sanctity of the examination.
The video, which was uploaded with a changed time stamp, was circulated to “spread outrage and misleading information” about the question paper already being leaked on social media, further said the UPPRPB.
The FIR was lodged at Hussainganj police station in Lucknow under Section 13 of the Uttar Pradesh Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 1998 and other charges under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, including cheating, forgery for purpose of cheating, forgery of valuable security, forgery to harm reputation and using a forged document as genuine.
“We are taking strict action against those spreading misleading news,” said Krishna.
On the first two days of the examination, police registered 17 FIRs against alleged solvers (people impersonating as candidates), candidates using unfair means to cheat or fake documents to appear in the exam and persons allegedly defrauding candidates into paying them huge sum with the promise of receiving leaked copies of the question papers.
Different districts, same story
In Varanasi, the special task force of the Uttar Pradesh police arrested a person Hans Ranjan Kumar, a resident of Bihar, for allegedly extorting a total sum of Rs 20 lakh from candidates after promising them copies of the question paper through a WhatsApp group. In Deoria, a Bihar resident Vinay Kumar was arrested after he was found appearing for the examination in place of one Rakesh Yadav of Ballia, who was also arrested.
In Lucknow, one Anirudh Modhanwal of Bhadohi was arrested for allegedly promising and providing candidates fake ‘leaked’ copies of the question paper through the phone application Telegram in lieu of money. Modhanwal ran a Telegram channel named ‘UP Police Constable paper leaked’ and assured candidates they would be provided a copy of the question paper before the date of examination for a sum of Rs 1 lakh each, said police.
When Modhanwal faced the heat from the candidates to supply the papers, he allegedly downloaded previous years’ question papers, edited them and circulated them on the Telegram group, said police.
In Gorakhpur, a female police constable Pinki Sonkar was arrested after police found five admit cards with her. A Delhi resident Dev Pratap Singh was also arrested with her.
In Maharajganj, a candidate from Haryana, Yogesh, was arrested after police allegedly found two electronic devices hidden in his shoes. A candidate, Upendra Singh, was found with earphones inside the examination hall in Rae Bareli. In Kanpur, a candidate from Mathura, Pawan Chaudhary, was arrested after he was allegedly found with an admit card that had option a, b and c written on its back.
On the first two days, roughly 32% of the candidates did not appear for the written test. On August 24, only 6.57 lakh candidates sat for the exam although 8.24 lakh had downloaded their admit cards and 9.63 lakh had enrolled for it.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav criticised the state government for the depreciated number of candidates actually appearing for the examination.
“One third of the candidates of the Uttar Pradesh police recruitment examination did not even appear for the exam. In other words, one out of every three candidates did not give their exam. Whether the reason for this is the loss of faith in the examination system under the BJP rule or hopelessness towards the BJP government or something else, it is a subject of deep study,” said Yadav.
During the Lok Sabha election, Yadav had aggressively campaigned against the BJP for failing to hold recruitment examinations without allegations of foul play, paper leak or other irregularities.
On August 24, the UPPRPB said it had found 72 false or suspicious candidates across the state.
Recently, while promoting the fresh examinations for police constables, Adityanath had announced that 20% of the positions would be allotted to women.
After initially denying the allegations of a paper leak, Adityanath’s government had in February, cancelled the paper and directed the UPPRPB to conduct it afresh in six months.
