UP STF busts exam-rigging racket, arrests two directors of firm that selected exam centres

Lucknow, Sep 23 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has busted a gang involved in large-scale rigging of an online examination conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), arresting two directors of Aces Infra Private Limited, the company responsible for selecting examination centres.

With the latest arrests, the total number of accused arrested in connection with the examination rigging case has reached 10, the STF said.

According to the STF, seven members of a solver gang involved in rigging the SSC Constable General Duty in the SEPF and the SSF and Rifleman Examination-2026 in Assam Rifles were arrested on May 22.

Following a detailed investigation into the case, a joint team of the Knowledge Park Police Station, Gautam Budhha Nagar Police and the STF arrested two directors of Aces Infra, the company involved in selecting examination centres.

The two arrested accused are residents of Jaipur. They have been identified as Gagandeep Sharma, a resident of Mahima City under Ramnagari Police Station in Jaipur, and Yadavendra Singh.

The STF said it had been receiving continuous intelligence inputs about gangs involved in manipulating and rigging various SSC examinations. Based on these inputs, a team was constituted under the leadership of Additional Superintendent of Police, STF Field Unit Noida, Navendu Kumar, along with Sub-Inspector Akshay P.K. Tyagi, to gather information and investigate the network.

On May 22, a team of the Gautam Buddh Nagar STF arrested seven accused, including alleged mastermind Pradeep Chauhan and hacker Amit Rana.

The accused were allegedly involved in facilitating cheating during an examination held at Balaji Digital Zone, located within the jurisdiction of the Knowledge Park Police Station area of Greater Noida.

According to investigators, a proxy server was installed, and the examination server was allegedly hacked, following which links were provided to candidates’ computers to enable solvers to assist them during the examination. During the operation, police seized Rs 50 lakh in cash, proxy servers and other material.

The STF said that a total of 10 accused have so far been arrested and sent to jail in connection with the case.

During the investigation, it emerged that Equity was the executing agency appointed by the SSC for conducting the examinations. Equity had entered into a contract with Aces Infra for the selection of examination centres in northern Indian states.

The investigation revealed that Balaji Digital Zone, where the earlier raid was conducted, had also been designated as an SSC examination centre by Aces Infra. According to the STF, a total of 16 SSC examinations had been conducted at the centre since 2025.

However, the investigation found that Aces Infra had not paid Balaji Digital Zone the prescribed fees for conducting these examinations.

The probe further revealed that apart from allegedly failing to pay the prescribed fees to examination centres, Aces Infra had also violated several security regulations applicable to examination centre operators.

The STF said these lapses allegedly enabled examination centre operators to collect money from candidates appearing in competitive examinations and facilitate cheating during the tests.

Investigators have so far identified dozens of suspected examination centres across several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi, as being allegedly involved in the examination scam.

The investigation also brought to light an incident from April this year involving a computer laboratory named Mahadev Digital Zone in Dehradun. The lab had allegedly been caught facilitating cheating with the use of a proxy server.

A case was subsequently registered at Kotwali Police Station in Dehradun, in which Pradeep Chauhan was named as the main accused.

Despite this development, Aces Infra allegedly designated another laboratory owned by Chauhan, Balaji Digital Zone in Greater Noida, as an examination centre for SSC examinations, without taking cognisance of the earlier case, according to the STF.

The Special Task Force said Aces Infra was the primary contractor responsible for selecting examination centres and that evidence gathered during the investigation pointed towards the involvement of the company in the examination rigging network.

The investigation is continuing to identify others involved in the wider examination scam.

–IANS

sd/vd