300 sahayak aspirants gave Rs 10 lakh each to clear exam

The number of aspirants who passed the recruitment exam for vidhyut sahayak (junior engineers-civil) in state-run power distribution companies spiked to 300 even as three more people were arrested for the rigging of the online exam. 

A teacher and a software engineer were among three more people arrested and they were remanded to the crime branch custody till May 29.

During investigation, it was revealed that around 300 candidates have given Rs8 lakh to 10 lakhs each to clear the online examination. With three more arrests, the total number of accused arrested in the scam so far has reached seven. 

Those arrested by crime branch included Salim Dhapa, resident of Ilol, Himmatnagar; Manoj Makwana, resident of Ranasan from Talod town of Sabarkantha, and Nikunj Parmar, a resident of Diyoli in Idar.

Salim is teacher who has taken money from 30 aspirants, while Manoj has taken money from four candidates. 

Nikunj, who is a software engineer has also taken money from four candidates. These accused gave a portion of the money to the main accused Indravadan Parmar after taking their shares.

The racket was busted last week by the crime branch which arrested two Parmar and Mohammed Uvesh Kapadwala, owner of a government-authorized exam centre in Varachha.

A total of 2,156 candidates appeared in the exam held from December 9, 2020, to January 6, 2021 for the posts in PGVCL, MGVCL, DGVCL, UGVCL and GSEL.

Parmar and Kapadwala were agents who searched for candidates wanting to clear the exam through fraud means. They operating from eight online testing centres in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot cities.

The test paper was visible on the monitors of the examinee while same screen could be accessed by hired ‘experts’ on another computer in the same centre using a screen splitter. They clicked correct options using a wireless.