Civil court staff recruitment exam: STF busts solvers’ gang, arrest 11 from Lucknow and Kanpur

At least 11 people, including four involved in helping candidates in cheating by impersonation and three gang operators, were arrested by Uttar Pradesh police’s special task force from Lucknow and Kanpur during the civil court staff recruitment examination on Sunday.

Officials said eight people were arrested from three examination centres in Lucknow while three others were arrested from two centres in Kanpur.

“In Lucknow, one solver Avinash Kumar, candidate Vineet Kumar Singh and three gang operators Diwakar Singh, Pushpak Kumar and Suchit Yadav were arrested from Bal Nikunj Inter College in Madiaon while one solver Ankit Kumar Singh and candidate Pravin Kumar were arrested from Queens’ Inter College, Lalbagh,” STF’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) Abhishek Singh said.

He said Vikas Kumar Vaish was arrested from Exon Montessori Girls Degree College in in Lucknow’s Rajajipuram but the candidate, Chandrakant, in whose place Vaish was appearing in the exam managed to escape.

The SSP said Abhinav Yadav, who was appearing in place of Kuldeep Yadav, was arrested from Khalsa Inter College in Kanpur and Aditya Yadav, appearing in place of one Avinash Yadav, was arrested from HP Shiksha Niketan Inter College.

The gang’s mastermind Rahul Yadav was also arrested from outside Khalsa Inter College.

He said efforts were on to arrest the candidates who had hired others to appear for the recruitment exam and further efforts were on to extract information about others associated with the solver’s gang.

The STF had arrested at least 27 people, including a Lucknow Police constable and an intermediate school principal, from Lucknow, Prayagraj and other districts in the state on January 6 for rigging the exam for the recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers in the basic education department.

In December last year, the STF had exposed major anomalies during recruitment examination organised by Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC) for three different posts and arrested 29 people from Lucknow and other districts.