SOG arrests Rs 10,000-reward dummy candidate who sat RPSC senior teacher exam for Rs 5 lakh

Jaipur: The Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police has arrested a 27-year-old man who had allegedly been paid Rs 5 lakh to impersonate another candidate and sit a Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) senior teacher recruitment examination, after he spent nearly two years on the run with a Rs 10,000 reward announced for his arrest.

According to Additional Director General of Police (SOG) Vishal Bansal, the case relates to the RPSC Senior Teacher (Secondary Education) Grade II competitive examination 2022. The general knowledge and educational psychology paper, originally held on 24 December 2022, was cancelled after a paper leak and re-conducted on 29 January 2023.

Police said the original candidate, Gopal Singh, a resident of Parawa in Jalore district, did not appear for the general knowledge or science papers himself and instead arranged for two impersonators to write them. On 29 January 2023, the accused, Naresh Kumar, allegedly sat the re-conducted general knowledge and educational psychology paper in Gopal Singh’s place at a government school examination centre in Udaipur.

Using the impersonators, Gopal Singh was fraudulently declared selected for the post of Senior Teacher Grade II (Science), but his appointment letter was withheld after a complaint was filed with the RPSC, police said. Gopal Singh was arrested in December 2023, and Vishnu Prakash, an MBBS student who allegedly wrote the science paper in his place, was arrested in March 2024.

Naresh Kumar, son of Ratan Lal and a resident of Kotda in Jalore district, had allegedly agreed to take the examination for Rs 5 lakh and had been absconding for about two years, with the SOG announcing a Rs 10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

He has been booked under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 and 10 of the Rajasthan Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2022, at the SOG police station in Jaipur. Police said he was produced before an additional district and sessions court in Jaipur, which remanded him to police custody until 9 June, and that further investigation is underway to identify others involved in the case.