Seven Munnabhais fall in police dragnet

KANPUR: The Special Task Force (STF) arrested seven `Munnabhais' on Sunday for allegedly enacting Munnabhai in real life by impersonating seven applicants and appearing on their behalf in All-India State Bank of India's clerical examination held in the Industrial city. The kingpin of the racket was one of the arrested and it was exposed that the 'gang' used to solve question papers of IIT and IIM entrance exams of Bangalore and Jaipur.
The police identified them as Mahendra Singh of Madanpur Chersa in Bilhaur, Mukesh Kumar Yadav of Dhikauli in Jhansi district, Shyam Prakash of Dhaniamau in Sultanpur, Navin Bajpai of Kalpi Jalaun, Subhash Verma of Raniganj, Bhupendra Verma alias Monu Verma of Kakadeo and Vikas Sachan of Girsi in Kanpur Dehat.
The arrests have once again put a serious question mark on the flourishing menace. The breakthrough came during the State Bank of India's clerical examination on Sunday. Deputy superintendent of police, STF, Triveni Singh and deputy superintendent of police S Anand, who headed the investigation, informed they nabbed the king-pin Mahendra Singh when he and his four aides were busy chalking out a strategy outside an inter college near Nana Rao Park and Kanpur Vidhya Mandir Mahila Inter College in Swaroop Nagar.
The solvers were to replace Giriraj Kumar Yadav, Abhishek Pandey and Akash Talwar. When STF cross-checked those candidates, the STF personnel managed to nab Navin Bajpai and Mukesh Kumar Yadav, who were impersonating Abhishek Pandey and Akash Talwar while the solver, who was to replace Giriraj, did not turn up at the examination hall. "Their interrogation is still underway," the STF officials informed TOI.
Mahendra Singh, who revealed that Rs 5.25 lakh was fixed for a candidate, had been charged with running a 'Munnabhai' racket and solving question papers in IIT and IIM entrance examinations in cities like Bangalore and Jaipur. He had also reportedly committed huge irregularities in various other career-oriented examination, the police claimed.
The police also recovered six mobile phones and a four-wheeler from their possession. The police also recovered several sets of question paper of the competitive exam.
A student of MBBS was arrested a few days back from the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical (GSVM) College in Kanpur. "The police are now zeroing-in on big players involved in the nexus. We will now try to get them on remand and investigations are in progress," said SSP (STF) Vijay Prakash.
In reply to a question, he said a case against all the seven accused had been registered with the Swaroop Nagar police and they would be produced in court on Monday. Efforts were on to arrest other members of the gang, he added.