Health officer exam: Mafia charged Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh from each candidate, say Bihar Police

Patna, Dec 6 (PTI) Investigations by the economic offences unit (EOU) of Bihar Police have found that "mafia" charged Rs 4 to Rs 5 lakh to provide question papers ahead of the community health officer (CHO) recruitment exam on December 1.

Following detection of widespread irregularities during the online test at three centres in Patna, the Bihar government cancelled the CHO exam on December 2.

The Bihar State Health Society, which organised the test, said new exam dates would be announced later.

The exams were conducted across 12 online centres in Patna. Police arrested 37 people, including nine aspirants, owners, and employees of the exam centres, as well as IT managers.

According to a statement by the EOU on Friday, investigations revealed that the mafia, which included "solvers," were charging Rs 4 to Rs 5 lakh per candidate for access to question papers. While a portion of the fee had already been collected, the remainder was to be paid after the results, it added.

The investigation also pointed to the involvement of the notorious Ravibhushan gang. Ravibhushan, a resident of Nalanda district, is under investigation for his role in other paper leak cases. Police have launched a manhunt to apprehend Ravibhushan and his associates, who are currently absconding.

A recent raid on a premises in Agamkuan area of Patna, believed to be the gang's command centre, led to the recovery of 60 computers, several laptops, mobile phones, pen drives, duplicate Aadhaar cards, ATM and debit cards, a list of candidates, and Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, the statement said.

On December 1, police had recovered electronic devices, laptops, mobile phones, and Aadhaar cards from those arrested in connection with the exam fraud. Acting on a tip-off, EOU and Patna police raided three exam centres and found massive irregularities.

Investigations revealed that employees at the exam centres provided unauthorised access to a "solver" gang via a proxy server and remote access applications.

Evidence showed that the gang was solving the online exam papers in real-time through Computer-Based Testing (CBT). The owners of the exam centres, employees, and private IT managers were found complicit in these malpractices. A Pune-based IT firm was responsible for conducting the exam, the statement said. PTI PKD MNB