The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Uttar Pradesh on Friday arrested six individuals linked to the 2018 Village Development Officer (VDO) recruitment scam, which involved large-scale manipulation of OMR sheets, collusion between UPSSSC officials, employees of the exam conducting agency, middlemen, and undeserving candidates.
The arrested men are:
Kuldeep Kumar – Malihabad, Lucknow
Surya Prakash Singh – Barabanki
Rinku Yadav – Varanasi
Ajay Kumar Yadav – Jankipuram, Lucknow
Sarvesh Kumar – Jalaun
Nidesh Gangwar – Bareilly
The arrests were made under Operation Shikanja, an EOW crackdown targeting absconding conspirators of this multi-crore examination fraud.
In 2018, UPSSSC announced 1,953 posts for Village Development Officer, Gram Panchayat Officer, and Social Welfare Supervisor, outsourcing the written examination to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Soon after results were declared, complaints emerged alleging mass copying, paper leaks, OMR tampering, and favoritism.
IG of EOW, Sunil Emmanuel, stated that the investigation uncovered a racket operating both inside and outside the exam system. Officials and TCS staff reportedly accessed stored OMR sheets, altered answers, overwritten bubbles, and assigned high scores to pre-decided candidates.
An FIR was lodged at Vibhuti Khand Police Station, Lucknow, and the case was transferred to a Special Investigation Team (SIT). Review of statements, documents, forensic evidence, and digital trails confirmed the involvement of 173 people, with at least 15 currently in police custody.
