Exam time: Chit gangs take houses, fields on rent in Nuh district

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, March 8

Nuh residents are raking in the moolah this Haryana board examination season. They are allegedly renting out not just their rooms adjoining the examination centres but also fields to gang members for them to plan and execute their plans.

Modus operandi

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• The villages, who want their candidates to cheat, tie up with gangs for Rs 5 lakh per village
• The gangs, in ‘connivance’ with centre staff, get question paper via WhatsApp, prepare chits
• Gang members scale walls of centre & help students; make video as proof to get payment

They are charging anything between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 per hour depending upon the location and services offered, primarily being alarm calls in case of police raid.

“My house is next to the school here and every year, these boys come and use my room and roof as they get direct access to windows of the examination halls. This year, the police are very strict, so I am getting Rs 5,000 an hour. My wife keeps tabs outside the house and stops authorities from entering,” said Mushtaq, a resident of Punhana.

“It is impossible to stay near the centres for a long time with the police around. My field is in the Aravalli foothills and the gangs are preparing chits there. That helps them not get traced and they flee to the hills in case the police come. I am also giving them food and charging Rs 10,000 per paper,” added a farmer in Ferozepur Jhirka.

Sources claimed that the gang command centres have now been shifted to the Aravalli hills and they are operating from there.

“The hills are safe. We make all arrangements there without any disturbance. Then, the chit team goes and executes its job in the schools. The hills make us untraceable on GPS also. We have a team of village boys who raise the alarm if the police come near,” said a kingpin of the cheating gangs.

Many of these gangs have shifted base to nearby villages in Rajasthan to evade the Haryana Police. They are carrying out all operations there and enter Haryana only to send chits.

With increased police vigil, the rate of cheating contract has increased to almost Rs 5 lakh per village.

The police too are on the job. The visuals of police chasing these gang members across the fields and the Aravallis have gone viral on social media. According to Nuh police spokesperson, they caught 34 suspects on March 7 for violating Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code near the examination centres.

“The next examination is on Monday and we are stepping up the vigil. Raids are being conducted across the fields and forest. We are also checking empty plots and houses next to the school,” said Nuh police spokesperson.