UPTET 2021: Proxy candidates among 10 held for malpractice during exam

LUCKNOW/PRATAPGARH: Ten people, including those impersonating candidates, were arrested for allegedly engaging in acts of examination malpractice during the Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test (UPTET) 2021, police said on Sunday.

Circle Officer (City) Abhay Pandey said the proxy candidate, identified as Amarjeet Verma, was arrested from Saket Girls Inter College examination centre. He was appearing in place of aspirant Vivek Kumar. An electronic device has been recovered from him, Pandey said. Similarly, Vijay Bahadur Saroj, appearing in the exam in place of Deepak Kumar, was arrested from Prayagraj, the Special Task Force (STF) said in a statement issued in Lucknow.

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Another proxy candidate, Pappu Singh alias Arnav Singh, a resident of Vaishali district of Bihar, was arrested in Jaunpur district. In Moradabad, Sonu Pal, a member of a solver gang, who used to take hefty amount from aspirants was arrested. Three members of a solver gang including a mastermind and a candidate were arrested in Meerut.

The arrested people have been identified as Monu Prajapati, a resident of Baghpat (mastermind), Anil Kumar (candidate), resident of Bulandshahr and Raja Tomar (solver), resident of Baghpat, the STF said. Similarly, Sarvjeet Verma (of Pratapgarh), Raju Kumar Manjhi (of Siwan district in Bihar) and Dinesh Chandra Singh (Fatehpur) who used to charge huge sums of money from aspirants to provide them with solvers, were arrested from Prayagraj, the STF said in a statement.

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Moreover, several candidates appearing for UPTET 2021 exam alleged that they were denied entry at the exam centres for different reasons. While some candidates could not reach their centres on time due to bad weather conditions, others were not given entry due to non availability of valid documents such as attested documents.

UPTET 2021 exam was held at 4,365 exam centres across 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh. UPTET paper 1 timing was 10 am to 12:30 pm. Paper 1 is for primary school teachers for class 1 to 5. UPTET paper timing for Paper 2 was 2:30 pm to 5 pm. Paper 2 is for higher primary school teachers for classes 6 to 8.

(With inputs from PTI)