The CM Flying Squad has busted an alleged examination cheating racket in which a private school operator was facilitating students who had failed board examinations to pass by arranging for dummy candidates to appear in open school examinations on their behalf.
According to the information received, Sub-Inspector of the CM Flying Squad, Parvinder Singh, received a tip-off that Manmohan Singh Sohal, operator of Dashmesh Public School in Guru Nanak Nagar, Ambala City, allegedly helped students who had failed their Class 10 and 12 examinations to pass.
The school operator allegedly arranged for educated individuals to appear in National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) examinations in place of the actual students, thereby enabling them to secure good scores. In exchange for this illicit service, the school operator reportedly charged between Rs 60,000 and Rs 1.20 lakh.
Following the tip-off, in February, the sub-inspector approached the school operator and expressed his desire to have his son pass the Class 12 examination. Manmohan Singh allegedly demanded Rs 65,000 for arranging an educated individual to appear in the examination in place of his son.
The accused further claimed that he had fraudulently helped thousands of students pass examinations in this manner and that many of them were currently employed in government jobs.
Manmohan Singh also disclosed that he had examination centres in the Nuh/Mewat region, where surveillance mechanisms were allegedly lax.
According to the complaint submitted by the SI to the Ambala police, this statement clearly demonstrated that Manmohan Singh had deliberately and knowingly selected examination centres with weak surveillance systems.
The SI reportedly recorded the conversation and continued gathering further information. Meanwhile, on May 22, acting on another tip-off that photocopies of the results of students who had allegedly passed through dummy candidates were in the accused’s possession, a joint team of the CM Flying Squad and the Education Department conducted a raid.
The team recovered the results of around 18 students from his possession and also obtained contact details of some of the students.
During the investigation, the CM Flying team met Om Prakash Sharma, who stated that he had paid Rs 70,000 to Manmohan Singh to help his son clear the Class 12 examination, but neither was the work completed nor was the money returned.
Some other students and their parents, whose records were recovered from the school, claimed that their children had not appeared for the Class 12 examinations conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).
During questioning, Manmohan Singh allegedly revealed that Bina Rani of Shahabad, who runs Karam Gyan College in Shahabad, Kurukshetra, was also involved in the racket.
According to the complaint, the accused, in connivance with officials/employees of the National Institute of Open Schooling and staff deployed at the examination centres, arranged for dummy candidates to appear in the examinations.
A case has been registered against Manmohan Singh and Bina Rani at Baldev Nagar police station. Investigating Officer Ramesh Kumar said that records were being collected and further investigation was underway.
