A 33-year-old man has been arrested in Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur district after he provided 'impersonation services' for a candidate meant to appear for the Tamil Nadu police recruitment exam. Raghupathy, an engineering graduate, was working in Cuddalore when he decided to help 23-year-old Deva Prashant with the exam for the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board. He didn't do it for free or for friendship, but charged a fee of Rs 1.5 lakh for this service. Raghupathy, along with Deva Prashant and the latter’s cousin Santhosh, who abetted the cheating, have been all been arrested.
According to the district police, they grew suspicious when the photograph on the hall ticket presented by Raghupathy on Sunday did not match the face of the candidate ie Deva Prashant. However, they let Raghupathy write the exam in order to ‘not disturb other candidates.'
“Raghupathy was allowed to sit for the examination as the checks were being carried out. They did not want to create a panic situation for other candidates who had come to write the exam. He was caught after the exam and detained. He revealed that had taken Rs 1 lakh as advance from Deva Prashant who got introduced to him through his cousin Santosh. Raghupathy and Santosh were old classmates from engineering,” one officer from the Udayarpalayam police station told TNM.
Ariyalur was picked as exam centre as it was neither Kanyakumari from where Deva Prashant hails nor Cuddalore which is Raghupathy’s hometown. The trio believed that it would not lead to any suspicions.
The men were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on Sunday. They have been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation).
The state has over 8,800 vacancies for various posts in the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services which recruits for state departments including police, fire services and prisons. In Ariyalur alone, reports state, that only 2972 candidates appeared for the exam while 3960 had applied for it.