Gujarat Police Bust IELTS, TOEFL Exam Fraud Racket in Anand; One Arrested

Anand, Gujarat: The Anand Cyber Crime Police on Monday busted an alleged examination fraud racket for international language proficiency tests, including IELTS, TOEFL, and CELPIP. One person has been arrested, and police are searching for the suspected masterminds.

The accused have been identified as Harshad Raval, the alleged mastermind, and his aide Arth Bundela, who are both residents of Ahmedabad. According to police, they set up the examination centre under the guise of a legitimate facility. The arrested individual is Tarunkant Sharma, a resident of South Bopal, Ahmedabad, originally from Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh. Sharma was allegedly employed at the centre under Raval's direction.

Acting on specific intelligence inputs, a police team led by Inspector J K Dodiya and Sub-Inspector H A Rishin carried out a raid at an 'examination centre' operating from a building behind a college near Anand Grid Chokdi. Investigators found that a company named Link Horizon was allegedly facilitating malpractice in online examinations required for study, work, and immigration purposes abroad.

Police discovered a sophisticated setup designed to allow impersonation during exams. The centre had two rooms—a 'test lab' and a 'support room'—connected through a concealed opening in a common wall. HDMI splitter adapters were used to mirror the examination screens from the test lab to computers in the support room. This enabled a dummy candidate in the support room to take the exam on behalf of the registered test-taker, thereby cheating the examination authorities.

Deputy Superintendent of Police J N Panchal said, 'The setup enabled a dummy candidate sitting in the support room to take the examination on behalf of the registered test-taker. The system was designed to help candidates clear examinations through fraudulent means, thereby cheating examination authorities and compromising the integrity of the testing process.'

Based on the findings, Anand Cyber Crime Police registered an FIR under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, including Sections 318(3), 318(4), 319, and 61(2), along with Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which deals with cheating by personation using computer resources.

Investigators said the alleged fraud operation had been running for nearly one-and-a-half months. The premises had been rented about six months ago through a memorandum of understanding signed with the college. Police seized equipment and materials valued at approximately Rs 3.78 lakh, which are believed to have been used in the fraud. Data from seized computers, CPUs, and mobile phones is being analysed to determine the number of candidates involved and the amount of money collected for favourable results. This may lead to additional charges or arrests.

Teams have been formed to trace and apprehend the two absconding suspects, Raval and Bundela.