UPSC exam fraud: Two more arrested

Helped IPS officer cheat last year too

The special team probing the case involving IPS officer Safeer Karim, who was caught red-handed trying to cheat during the main examination of UPSC last week, arrested the owner of an IAS coaching centre in Kerala and its front-office manager on Saturday for allegedly helping him clear the preliminary exams held last year through fraudulent means.

The duo has been brought to Chennai.

Karim was arrested last Saturday during a raid, following an input from the Intelligence Bureau, at the Presidency Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Egmore. When he was frisked, officials found a mobile phone, a Bluetooth earpiece and other electronic gadgets concealed in the folds of his shirt. He was using them to communicate with his wife to get answers for the questions.

The Egmore police arrested Karim and seized the unauthorised articles. Now, it has emerged that he had used the same method to cheat in the preliminary exam in Madurai.

Sources added that Karim appeared for the preliminary examination in Madurai. While writing the examination, he sent scanned question papers from the examination hall through a small camera wired onto his clothes to Mohammed Shahib Khan, who was sitting in Neo IAS Coaching Centre in Kochi.

The head office of the centre is in Thiruvananthapuram.

Khan, the front office assistant of the coaching centre, is apparently a confidante of Karim and he got the answers for the objective type questions from his boss Samjad, who runs Neo Coaching Centre. Both Khan and Samjad admitted to having committed the offence.

The police had arrested Karim’s wife Joicy and friend Rambabu Paladugu of La Excellence, an institute that offers coaching for IAS, on the same day the IPS officer was arrested.

Police said both were found sitting in a room and reading out answers to Karim over the phone.

A police officer said a few other family members of Karim were also allegedly involved in similar malpractices. Meanwhile, Joicy came out of the prison on Friday after a magistrate court granted her bail.

The city police is likely to move an application seeking custody of Karim and Rambabu. The hearing on their bail plea was adjourned to Monday by the 14th metropolitan magistrate.

Police sources said the case could be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation or the CB-CID considering the fact that investigation has already spanned several States and could result in more arrests.