MP Exam Scam: 12 Booked For High-Tech Cheating

Twelve candidates have been booked on charges of cheating in the exam based on a complaint lodged by principal analyst of State Employee Selection Board (ESB) Pranjit Sijaria in the MP Nagar Police Station here a couple of days ago, police said here on Wednesday.

The issue relates to MP Excise Constable Recruitment Test 2024, held at a Centre in Ratlam in the second week of September 2025.

Of the 12 candidates booked in the case, nine are from Bhind and Morena in Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh, two are from Haryana and the remaining one was from Agra in Uttar Pradesh.

The recruitment test was conducted by the ESB, the new avatar of Madhya Pradesh Vyapam (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal), commonly known as the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board.

The ESB sniffed a scam during analysis of performance data of the candidates who had scored unusually high marks and lodged a police complaint against 12 candidates for cheating in the exam, a senior police officer, who was also monitoring the case, told this newspaper, requesting not to be quoted.

“The Board’s system identified a peculiar pattern while analyzing the data of some top performers in the recruitment test. Many of them were spotted in the CCTV footage scrolling through the question paper rapidly within the first 10 to 15 minutes without attempting to answer. A prolonged inactivity in their monitors followed and then during the final segment of the exam, a sudden surge in the correct responses to the question paper was noticed”, the police officer said.

The Board’s system marked the pattern as ‘High Strike Rate’ anomalies, the police officer explained.

The candidates were appearing the recruitment test online in the computer labs at an exam Centre in Ratlam.

CCTVs have been installed in the computer labs.

The particular candidates had solved the question paper within 15-20 minutes and remained inactive for the rest of the time during the two-hour test, the CCTV footage indicated, sources said.

The preliminary investigation by the ESB suggested that computer monitors allotted to the particular 12 candidates were replaced minutes before they occupied their designated seats.

“The ESB’s preliminary probe suggested an outsider's hand in the recruitment scam”, sources said.

There may be screen manipulation or relay of answers to the candidates from the outside source, the police officer said and added that a thorough probe would unearth the modus operandi of the alleged high-tech recruitment scam.

The incident reminds one of the Vyapam scam that rocked Madhya Pradesh in 2013.

The Vyapam scam, which involved large scale corruption and forgery to manipulate results for the government jobs and admissions in the government medical colleges, had implicated a number of politicians, officials and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh.

Later, the Vyapam was rechristened as State Employee Selection Board (ESB) for an image makeover of the recruitment body.