New Delhi: Three days after Delhi Police busted an alleged exam-solving racket operating from an apartment in Dwarka and arrested a man, investigators said the gang had been manipulating online entrance examinations for over a year and may have tampered with at least 10 tests. As many as 32 students from prestigious colleges have been bound down as part of the probe, police said.Investigators revealed that the group used remote desktop applications to enable candidates to cheat in online entrance exams for top govt and private colleges in Delhi and other states.Further probe has revealed that one of the accused, Pranjal, an engineering graduate who is currently absconding, played a key role in recruiting high-performing students from premier institutes to assist in the racket. “We have learned that Pranjal lured his friends and tasked them with recruiting high-achieving second- or third-year students who were proficient in different subjects,” a police source said.The students were told they were participating in an internship programme, under which they were asked to solve exam papers in return for payment, the source said.Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Kushal Pal Singh said police received information about suspicious activity on two floors of a building in Dwarka’s Sector 23 on April 6. During the raid, 33 people were found on the premises. One person, identified as Harsh Vardhan, 28, was arrested, while the remaining 32 students were bound down.An investigator said that 15 of those found at the flat claimed to have been directly involved in solving exam papers, while the rest said they had gathered there for a party. Police are verifying these claims.The students were from reputed institutes such as IIT, Delhi Technological University, Maharaja Agrasen College and National Institute of Technology, among others.Police said the gang operated through a chain system, with different members assigned specific roles. Vardhan allegedly identified aspirants who failed to clear competitive exams but were keen to secure admission to prestigious colleges. The gang also advertised its services on social media, claiming it could secure admissions in any college.The aspirants were allegedly asked to pay substantial sums — reportedly between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh — for engineering college admissions, the source said. Vardhan told police he was in contact with four to five such aspirants seeking admission to prestigious colleges across the country.The gang operated multiple WhatsApp groups categorised by subjects such as physics, chemistry and mathematics, adding students with relevant expertise. Members allegedly coordinated with online examination centres and used remote desktop software to access question papers as soon as they were released. They would then photograph the papers, circulate them within the groups for solutions and subsequently feed the correct answers into the original candidates’ exams.The source further revealed that the gang’s next target was an entrance examination of a reputed management institute in Mumbai. The test was scheduled to be conducted at an IT lab in Jaipur.“So far, we have come to know that they may have been involved in at least 10 such examinations, which are being verified,” the source added.
