Online SSC Paper Leak: Source CBI FIR
India. Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is mandated to recruit in a Group ‘B’ Non Gazetted Posts (Examiner & Preventive Officer in Customs, Inspectors in Central Excise & Taxations, Sub-inspector in CBl, Assistant Enforcement Officer in Enforcement Directorate & Statistic Investigator etc.), and Group ‘C’ Non Technical post (Auditor in CAG, Accountant in CAG and Controler General of Accounts, Tax Assistant etc) in Government of India. The Commission has also done recruitment to Group ‘B’ Gazetted posts of Assistant Accounts Officer and Assistant Audit Officer for the Indian Audit and Accounts Department.
Enquiry revealed that SSC started online CGL examinations since 2016 and prior to that this examination was conducted in Optical Marks Reader (OMR) mode. For online examination, SSC executed an agreement with M/s. SIFY Technologies Ltd. on 12.04.2016 vide RFP No.22l02t2015-G dated 15.01 .2016. As per the agreement SIFY has been entrusted to conduct computer mode examinations since 2016 and is responsible for following Acts:-
(i) Identification and Preparation of test centres across India as per the requirement,
(ii) Preparation of adequate number of Question paper sets of appropriate standard as per guidelines and requirement of SSC,
(iii) Capturing biometric and photograph of candidate’s registration,
(iv) Recording of each exam lab,
(v) Conduct the computer-based examinations,
(vi) To make arrangement for continuous monitoring and recording of candidates activities at each venue by CCTV surveillance so as to cover all the candidates in the lab for the full duration of the exam,
(vii) Shall take all steps to prevent leakage of question papers, etc.
(viii) Access to all possible web resources for browsing, chatting etc. should be blocked from the computers of the candidate as well as any other computer peripherals such as printers. The function like ‘Copy Paste’ should also be disabled.
4. Enquiry revealed that during the year 2017 Staff Selection Commission conducted online exam for Combined Graduate August 2017. Those candidates who cleared appeared for online Combined Graduate Level Level Tier-l Examination 2017 in the cut off list of Tier-l exam Tier-ll Exam 2017 in February.
5. 2O1B which was scheduled from 17.02.2018 to 22.02.2018 in two batches i.e. Batch 1 (B1) for Quantitate Ability and Batch 2 (82) for English Language & Comprehension. Enquiry revealed that in order to conduct CGL exam, Site supervisors of SIFY takes possession of the examination venues (Labs) five days prior to the commencement of exam and to examine and inspect examination centres’ set up, infrastructure like numbers of booked computers, scanning of each PC by using Microsoft Malicious software removal tool, etc. SIFY also checks and uninstalls all the unwanted and suspicious software installed in PCs, if any. The staff involved in conducting exam were also given training before the readiness day.
6. Enquiry revealed that on the day of the examination, the exam starts at 10.30 am for batch l(81) and in order to conduct the exam, the central exam back-end team of SIFy at Chennai head quarter upload the question paper to central server in data centre at Mumbai between 9:30 am to 10:00 am. After 10:00 am the central helpdesk team communicates the Question Pack (OP) activation password to all the venues site supervisors. The site supervisors further communicate the password to examination controller and the venue specific QP gets downloaded and activated using the web exam admin interface available on all exam servers.
7. Enquiry revealed that CGL Tier ll exam was scheduled to be conducted in online mode from ‘17.02.2018 to 22.02.2018 in two batches on each day i.e 81 (10.30 am for OA) &82 (02.30 pm for English Language & comprehension). The Screenshots of some of the questions of this exam CGL Tier ll Exam 2017, were found available on social media. The Answer keys of the Quantitate Ability (QA) examination dated 21.02.2018 were also found on social media i.e. on the facebook page of SSCTUBE at 10.10 am on 21.02.2018, however, this exam was scheduled to be held at 10.30 am on that day.
8. Enquiry pertaining to these above screenshots from M/s Sify Technologies Ltd revealed that these screenshots belong to the candidates namely i) sh’ Sachin Chauhan (ii) Sh. Sambhu Kumar (Sh’ Dhiraj, (iv) Deepak Rana’ (v) Sonam, (vi) Sh. Anoop, appeared in above CGL Tier ll examination 2017 and (vii) Ms. Suman Shivran who appeared in CGL Tier l examination 2017. As per records, maintained by M/s SIFY being Vendor of SSC for this exam, the questions of these screenshots match with the question papers of respective candidates. These screenshots also show the use of remote access software for solving the question papers. This fact shows that the above candidates used remote access software for solving their question papers by means of outside help from unknown persons.
9. Enquiry revealed that these above candidates appeared in online mode of examination, solved the questions through their allotted PCs in the respective allotted examination venues, where Site Supervisors of SIFY were posted as in-charge of respective examination venues and they were supposed to ensure that the allotted PCs of candidates are not having any suspicious software for the purpose of cheating or getting undue benefit in solving the question papers. On the other side, these candidates were also not supposed to take illegal help for solving their question papers. The details of above candidates, site supervisors posted on respective examination venues are as follows:
10.Enquiry pertaining to answer key dated 17.02.2018 found in Animate infotech, Tughlakabad (examination centre) received from Delhi Police revealed that the answers shown in this key matches with the options of respective answers pertaining to Quantitative Ability(OA) paper dated 17.02.2018 conducted by SSC for qualifying CGL Tier ll examination 2017. Enquiry pertaining to Answer key dated 21.02.2018 revealed that this answer key got viralled on social media at 10.10 AM on 21.02.2018 before the scheduled time of exam i.e 10.30 AM dated 21.02.2018. The answers are shown in this key matches with the options of respective answers pertaining to Quantitative Ability(QA) paper dated 21.02.2018 conducted by SSC for qualifying CGL Tier ll examination 2017, which reveals that this paper was got leaked before the scheduled time. Enquiry further revealed that Sh Sant Prasad Gupta being head of the content team of M/s SIFY got prepared the question papers of CGL examination 2017 and he was the custodian of said question papers. The above facts and circumstances reveal his involvement in the leakage of above papers.
11. The above facts and circumstances show that the above mentioned accused candidates in conspiracy with above-accused site supervisors of the respective job (of various ministries under Government of India) and the above-mentioned site supervisors also in order to obtain wrongful gain allowed the PCs of the candidates remotely accessed by violating guidelines of Sify as well as SSC. Sh Sant Prasad Gupta being the custodian of question papers and the fact of leakage of question papers reveals his involvement in the crime. In furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, the unknown officials of SSC who were supposed to supervise and monitor in order to ensure the fair and smooth conduct of examination abused their official position as public servants resulting into above illegal acts.
12. The above facts disclose commission of offences punishable under section U/s. 120 B rlw 420 of lPC, section 13(2) r/w 13 (1) (d) of PC Act 1988′ and Section 66D of lT Act on the part of Sachin Chauhan, Shambhu Kumar, Dhiraj, Deepak Rana, Sonam, Anoop, Suman Shivran, Bkaul Sophat, Ravi Kumar, Vipin Tanwar, Anurag Bhardwaj, Vijinder Singh, Manpreet, Prikshit Sharma, Pawan Kumar, Manohar Singh, Sant Prasad Gupta and unknown officers/officials of SSG & other unknown Persons.
13. It is, therefore, requested that a Regular Case may be registered for the commission of offences u/s. 120 B rtw 420 of lPC, section 13(21 rlw 1 3 (1) (d) of PC Act 1 988, and section 66D of lT Act. against Sachin Chauhan, Shambhu Kumar, Dhiraj, Deepak Rana, Sonam, Anoop, Suman Shivran, Bakul Sophat, Ravi Kumar, Vipin Tanwar, Anurag Bhardwaj, Vijinder Singh, Manpreet, Prikshit Sharma, Pawan Kumar, Manohar Singh, Sant Prasad Gupta and unknown officers/officials of SSC &other unknown Persons.
