Ranchi, May 22 (IANS) Jharkhand Police have arrested four persons including a candidate, an invigilator, the centre superintendent and an IT staffer, for alleged system hacking in the SSC GD Constable Examination-2026 in Ranchi, officials said on Friday.

According to police, the accused were remotely accessing the examination centre’s computer systems through the internet and IP-based connections to solve question papers. Candidates were allegedly charged between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for clearing the exam.

The matter came to light on May 21 after the Senior Superintendent of Police received information about an attempt to hack computer systems during the SSC GD Constable online examination at Genius Institute of Technology in the Tatisilwai police station area.

A special team was formed under the supervision of the Superintendent of Police, Rural, and led by Deputy Superintendent Amar Kumar Pandey to investigate the case.

During the probe, it was found that a candidate’s computer in Lab-1 of the centre had been restarted just before the examination on the instructions of the invigilator. Preliminary findings indicated that the system was being remotely accessed, raising a strong suspicion of screen mirroring and hacking.

During interrogation, candidate Mrityunjay Kumar Yadav and invigilator Sanjeet Kumar reportedly admitted that centre superintendent Vikas Kumar and IT staffer Munna Raj were operating computers from a house located opposite the examination centre to hack the online system. Both were subsequently arrested.

Police recovered computers, mobile phones, broadband devices, bank cheques and original educational certificates of candidates from the accused.

Investigations have revealed that candidates were being “fixed” through middlemen based in Bihar. In several cases, candidates’ original certificates were kept as collateral in exchange for guaranteed success in the examination.

Police suspect the involvement of a larger organised criminal network and said that further raids are underway to apprehend other members.

The arrested accused include Mrityunjay Kumar Yadav from Siwan, invigilator Sanjeet Kumar and centre superintendent Vikas Kumar from Nalanda, and IT staffer Munna Raj from Patna.

A case has been registered at Tatisilwai police station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, police said.

–IANS

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