The recruitment examination for 42,000 Home Guard posts in Uttar Pradesh continued on its second day, with Kanpur police arresting three people, including a chemistry lecturer, for allegedly facilitating cheating using artificial intelligence at an examination centre.
The arrests took place at BNSD Inter College, Chunniganj, which was designated as a centre for the Home Guard examination, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Atul Shrivastava. He added that English lecturer Lalit Bajpai was appointed as the centre administrator.
The examination began on Saturday across 1,053 centres in the state and will continue until April 27. A total of 25 lakh candidates are expected to appear. Police across the state remained on alert in view of the examination. The two-hour test was of 100 marks, with multiple-choice questions.
At the Kanpur centre, two blocks, Block-A and Block-B, were set up. On Saturday, the second shift ran from 3 pm to 5 pm, and all candidates completed biometric verification and proceeded to their respective classrooms.
At 2:55 pm, a man was seen walking from the direction of the examination room towards the washroom at the Block-A centre. Police personnel deployed with the sector magistrate stopped him and inquired about his destination. He identified himself as Sandeep Chandra Vishwakarma and stated that he was performing room inspector duty in Room No. 21. Upon checking, a sealed question paper was found hidden under his shirt.
On questioning, he revealed that room inspector Nirmal Kumar of another room had given him the question paper. During inspection of the nearby NCC room, a mobile phone and printer were discovered. Investigation revealed that the college spokesperson, Akhilesh Yadav, had provided the key to the NCC room to him.
When room inspector Nirmal Kumar was summoned and questioned, he admitted that he had indeed given one paper to Sandeep Chandra Vishwakarma to solve. When the duty assignments of both were investigated, police found their names in the duty chart. However, when cross-referenced with the list of external room inspectors issued by the district magistrate’s office, the names of Sandeep Kumar Vishwakarma and Nirmal Kumar were not present.
DCP Atul Shrivastava stated that investigation revealed that chemistry lecturer Akhilesh Yadav, employed at the college, had conspired to fill the OMR sheet of an absent candidate and show him as present. Both tuition teachers Sandeep Chandra Vishwakarma and Nirmal Kumar had been wrongfully assigned duty. Consequently, an FIR was registered against all three, and they were arrested.
Police said all three were preparing to facilitate cheating: a printer was arranged to copy the paper, and an NCC closed classroom was set up to answer questions using AI. Police produced all three in court before sending them to jail.
