PSC fraud: Crime Branch seizes smartphones from SFI leaders

Thiruvananthapuram: The Crime Branch has seized two smartphones from the houses of Students' Federation of India (SFI) leaders R Sivaranjith and A N Naseem, who are accused of committing fraud during a Public Service Commission (PSC) examination.

The duo, who are also accused in the stabbing case at the University College, are remanded in jail. The Crime Branch had seized one phone each from both their houses.

SFI leaders Sivaranjith had won the first rank, Pranav secured the second rank and Naseem had got the 28th rank in the PSC exam for civil police officers.

Considering the controversial nature of the case, the officers had taken a search warrant from the court before carrying out the inspection at the houses. Only after scientific tests are carried out, it would be known if the gadgets contain information helpful for the probe.

The Crime Branch sleuths believe that by checking the phones, they would be able to crack the mystery on how the duo got messages while writing the exam.

The Crime Branch suspect that a photo of the question paper was taken from the University College or some other exam centre and sent to people waiting outside via WhatsApp to commit the fraud.

The outside gang found the correct answer using the guide books and internet, and sent the answers as SMSes. These messages were received by the accused's phones that were kept in bags outside the exam hall. The accused had connected their smartwatches with these phones via bluetooth. The Crime Branch deduced that the accused were thus able to receive the answers on their watches and write the exam.

If the phones kept outside the hall were the same ones seized during the Tuesday's raid, these would turn out to be crucial pieces of scientific evidence in the case.

The internal Vigilance wing of the PSC, that had initially conducted the probe, had only collected information on the phone calls of the exam day and SMSes received. The probe suffered a setback as more information was not then collected.

The mobile service providers can only give call details of a year. By the time the Crime Branch took over the case, it had been exactly one year since the exam.

The Intelligence ADGP has shot off letters to the mobile companies, seeking the old call details. If this information is also made available, the probe would be expanded to check the involvement of more people.

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