New Delhi: Scaling walls and passing chits are no longer the cheat codes in competitive examinations. With exams going online, cheating has evolved and become a hi-tech headache for the police now.
Take last week’s Greater Noida bust. On Friday, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested seven persons for rigging the online exam that recruits constables to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Special Security Forces, as well as the Rifleman Examination 2026 for Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force.
At the centre of this latest outrage is a digital lab set up by Pradeep Chauhan, now behind bars. A guarantee of passing the exam came for Rs 4 lakh. The police is now investigating how the lab where the exam was being conducted passed the mandatory physical and technical security audits required for it to become an official testing centre.
According to the police, the gang operated out of Balaji Digital Zone in Greater Noida’s Knowledge Park. They had set up a proxy server to give complete control of the candidate’s computer screen to a solver located away from the exam centre, who would then solve the test for the candidate.
The brains behind this criminal feat is Amit Rana, who has studied only till Class 12; he learnt the proxy server bit from Google and YouTube.
The Greater Noida gang is no flash in the pan. Localised tactics used in examinations have evolved into an industry that employs gangs of solvers, and deploys technology like SIM-based micro-ear pieces, headsets, smartwatches and AI software. Syndicates like this, the police say, work across states, and tend to exploit digital vulnerabilities for online exams.
In other words, cheating has gone from being a disciplinary issue to technical hazard.
Phone-y business
Earlier this month in Meerut, as candidates began to troop in to take the Tradesman Mate recruitment exam at the 510 Army Base Workshop, the military administration soon noticed suspicious activity at the entry gate. First to be caught were tiny SIM-based Bluetooth devices tucked inside ears, and then mobile phones concealed inside clothes. The probe took the Meerut Police to an organised exam-solver gang that had been apparently operating for long out of Haryana.
A total of 19 people were detained in connection with the incident. The mobile phone was used to Google for answers by a dummy candidate, and others simply copied it, the police said, adding that the dummy candidate held at Meerut got Rs 4 lakh to appear at the exam.
“In the Tradesman Mate examination held today at 510 Army Base Workshop Meerut, some candidates had brought mobile phones, some had taken devices and Bluetooth… some of the above mentioned candidates had changed their seating places… these people were cheating in the examination by using the said means,” the First Information Report (FIR) said.
“After the investigation, we got to know a gang based out of Haryana has been working as solvers. Their job is to make a dummy candidate sit in place of an actual candidate. We found multiple other candidates using unfair means,” said a senior police officer from Meerut.
The mobile-phone like device that connected by Bluetooth to the ear devices is small and easy to conceal. The police said found that this solver gang would “target students from multiple coaching institutes, preparing for government exams. A person would change his or her identity and sit for the exam, facilitating cheating for other candidates as well. This gang has been involved in similar such cases in the past.”
The Meerut exam was of Grade 4 level, the police said, with most of the arrested candidates from lower middle class families. “The gang targets candidates willing to spend Rs 4 lakh on cheating, those from smaller towns with dreams and aspirations of securing a government job. Out of desperation, they use unfair means, exploiting the securities at examination centres,” said the officer.
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From AI to online servers
Similar such instances have been reported across India, showing a shift in the ways cheating is being done. In March, colleges affiliated with Veer Narmad South Gujarat University dealt with an unusual malpractice. An official from the administration department told ThePrint that students were found using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for cheating.
“We discovered that examinees, who were MBBS students, were caught cheating using ChatGPT. They had uploaded the entire question paper on ChatGPT and sought answers from it. After it came to our notice, we took action against the student, imposed a fine, and the examination was also cancelled.”
While this incident took place inside a college campus, the Delhi Police in April busted a large scale online cheating racket in Dwarka, revealing that a network involved in manipulating several entrance examinations. The case put 32 students under investigation, plus the 28-year-old kingpin of the racket.
According to senior police officers, the gang relied on remote desktop software for cheating, allowing external solvers to take control of candidates’ systems during live exams. Police said that once the question papers were released, they were quickly accessed, photographed, and circulated within closed groups for rapid solutions. These answers were then fed to the candidates, allowing them to cheat in entrance tests for top government and private colleges across Delhi and other states.
Accused candidates played an important role. High-performing students from premier institutes were attracted under the guise of “solving questions from online competitive exam preparation platform”. Paid Rs 500-1,000 per question, some were initially unaware of the illegal nature of the work.
There existed a structured chain network, and roles to each individual were assigned. They identified aspirants who had failed competitive exams but were still keen on securing admission to top institutions. The arrested persons belonged to top institutions, including Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi University, Maharaja Agrasen College, National Institute of Technology, Delhi Technical University, and the Indian Institute of Technology.
The gang even advertised its services on social media, claiming it could guarantee admissions. Candidates were reportedly charged between Rs 1.5 and 2 lakh. The group’s next target was a management entrance exam in Jaipur, scheduled to take place at an infotech lab.
Bluetooth bites
In Raipur, the police in February busted a cheating gang and arrested six people, including three engineering graduates from Haryana, for allegedly cheating in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), using concealed Bluetooth devices in the Chhattisgarh capital.
The police conducted surveillance around the centre and detained three individuals who were moving suspiciously outside with electronic equipment. “The group had allegedly set up an informal ‘control point’ at a tea stall a few metres from the exam venue, allowing them to remain in close contact with candidates inside because of the strong Bluetooth connectivity at such a short distance,” an officer told ThePrint.
Candidates seated inside the exam hall had tiny Bluetooth devices hidden in their ears and shoes. “The ones seated inside read out the questions, the accomplices outside searched for answers online and relayed them back in real time.” The police said the accused supplied specialised devices to candidates in exchange for Rs 2–3 lakh per paper.
Remote locations
In another case, back in July 2025, the Arunachal Pradesh Police arrested 53 candidates from Haryana who were found allegedly using “sophisticated electronic devices” to cheat in a recruitment examination conducted by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti. A senior police officer told ThePrint that the investigation revealed that the students, who had travelled from Haryana, were brought in a mini-bus to Arunachal so as to avoid contact with others.
“The handlers had a specific modus operandi: they would specifically choose locations inside remote villages, assuming security would be thin,” he said. The officer found that the students carried Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)-enabled gadgets and easily hidden micro-earpieces. The GSM gadget was hidden inside their undergarments.
“These devices are available on websites; maybe not in the market. Our investigation also led the website to be taken down,” the officer said.
Also Read: YouTube tutorials, proxy server: How a Class 12 passout helped rig SSC exams in Greater Noida
The enforcement issue
A senior police officer from the Noida STF said that in many such exam solver cases, the trend they have seen is that most people involved used to physically help in cheating. When security was strengthened, and exams went online, they began either working for such digital labs, or owning them, he said.
In the Greater Noida case, Pradeep has been in this business for a long time. He never got caught, and while in this alleged business, managed to find a team of people who looked after the technology, finance, and the process of getting every candidate to his lab.
The menace of exam solvers has been growing. A senior Delhi Police officer who has worked in a similar case told ThePrint, “In many such cases, students aren’t aware of who the exam solver is. They end up just doing mass cheating.” He said the person deployed as a dummy candidate usually has experience of the exam, and knows the ins and outs.
“Freshers don’t know, and once they get to know a network like this, it is easy to lure them. But we have noticed that this menace is moving towards the digital world. The issue of dummy candidates is slowly fading away, because exam centres are becoming stricter. The exams are moving to online mode, which is why we are seeing software being used to hack the system.”
The challenge, he said, pertains to when the police receive the information. “In cases where dummy candidates are sitting, or there is a device concealed inside clothes, it is easier to track, because it is the authorities that alert the police. But in cases where software is used to hack into the system, it is difficult to find the link. While there is digital evidence, there is also software present that can erase all the data. All the records that were being maintained are removed,” he said.
“The online server problem is a menace for the police. There are designated computer labs present to hack into the system, and most times, the servers are not present at the alleged location, but far away. These people behind it are tech savvy people, aware of the questions, the loopholes in the system. And those are the cases that are happening a lot, and call centres also facilitate the problem,” he added.
Another officer from the Delhi Police said that students who often do not end up securing a desired rank or marks are ready to pay up, depending on the value of the degree or government job. “For the medical entrance exam, students will pay Rs 25-30 lakh. For police exams, anywhere around Rs 10 lakh; it depends on the post and its importance,” he said.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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