An Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, aspiring to enter the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), was arrested for cheating in the civil services main exam with Bluetooth equipment, a police officer said on Monday.
Safeer Karim, currently an Assistant Superintendent of Police in Tirunelvelli district, was caught talking to his wife in Hyderabad for answers, according to the officer.
The officer said being caught for cheating in exams will have a serious effect on Karim’s career.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Karim used a micro camera mounted on his chest and connected to Google drive. The camera would scan the paper and send through Google drive to the intended recipient, in this case, his wife Joicy Joyce who was in Hyderabad.
Joyce would give the answer orally, which would reach him through Bluetooth. If the voice was not audible, he would write on a paper with a pencil, which he would scan again and send to his wife. She would then speak louder.
Joyce was allegedly assisted by an associate named Dr P Rambabu, director of La Excellence IAS Study Circle at Ashoknagar in Hyderabad, who provided hi-tech support to her to help her husband cheat. The two used computers, laptops, an iPad and other gadgets to transmit answers to Karim
On Tuesday, Hyderabad police arrested Joyce and Rambabu for allegedly helping Karim cheat in the civil services examination. The arrests came after the Chennai police tipped off their Hyderabad counterparts.
“We have handed both the accused to a team of Chennai police headed by a DCP rank officer P Aravindan. They are interrogating the accused now in Hyderabad, before taking them to Chennai,” Hyderabad central zone task force inspector S Srinivas Rao told Hindustan Times.
The task force also seized computer hard disks, laptops, an iPad and other gadgets from them and handed them over to the Chennai police. Karim was serving as additional superintendent of police in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunalveli district.
“Both Karim and Joyce are from Kerala. He was selected for IPS in 2015 and underwent training at the Sardar Vallabbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad. He was assigned to TN cadre. But, he was not satisfied with the selection for IPS. Keen on becoming IAS, he resorted to the malpractice,” the police official said.
