Intelligence Bureau officials arrested a trainee IPS officer on Monday after he was caught cheating in the UPSC examination. While the arrested officer, Safeer Karim, was caught in Chennai by officials, his wife Joicy Joy was arrested by Hyderabad police from a coaching centre in Ashok Nagar for helping her husband cheat in the exam.

Karim had smuggled in his Bluetooth enabled cell phone into the examination hall and Joicy reportedly dictated answers to her husband over phone, reported Times of India.

The arrested trainee IPS officer, an assistant superintendent of police on probation in Nanguneri subdivision of Tirunelveli, smuggled a cell phone and Bluetooth-enabled earpieces into the examination hall in Presidency Girls Higher Secondary School For Girls, Egmore. A micro camera attached to his chest would click pictures of questions and save it on Google drive. The images would be automatically sent to his wife's mail id. His wife would then whisper the answers to him. If it was not audible, he would write that on the paper, signalling her to speak louder.

Karim hailed from Aluva in Kerala, and though was an IPS officer, he wanted to enter the Indian Administrative Services and was retaking the exam. He was also the director of Karim's IAS, an institute that trains UPSC candidates in Kerala.

Karim is alleged to have tricked the policemen who were frisking candidates at the entry. “Karim handed over his wallet and a cellphone from his trouser pockets, apologizing for forgetting to leave the handset in his car. But he had hidden another phone and earphones in his socks,” told an officer to TOI. However, IB sleuths who came for checking found earpieces hidden under his seat and seized the phone he used for cheating.

Hyderabad police also arrested the Director of La Excellence IAS academy P Rambabu for aiding in the cheating. After IB officials caught Karim cheating in the exam and found Bluetooth earphones, they directed Hyderabad police to arrest the persons who were helping him.

A police officer told TOI, “The photo of question paper was clicked with the camera in the shirt button and automatically sent via gmail to his wife Joicy. The other team in Hyderabad downloaded question paper and read out answers to Karim over the phone.”

Police said that Rambabu and Karim have been friends from their days in Delhi when they were preparing for UPSC exam together.

Karim was booked under sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty) and120b (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and section 66 of the IT Act.