In-ear Bluetooth speaker was used by mastermind to dictate answers sitting in another city; accused charged candidates Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh
The skin-coloured in-ear earphones. Pic/Aishwarya Iyer
The police have uncovered a network behind candidates caught cheating in police recruitment exams. Two candidates arrested by Tilak Nagar police had paid between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for Bluetooth devices and SIM cards to facilitate cheating. Police sources believe a single mastermind may be behind multiple such cases.
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The modus is the same with several candidates. They would connect the device, a collaborator would dictate the answer, and all of this happens in real-time. We suspect that there is one man behind the two arrested candidates at the Somaiya centre,” said a police source. The suspect is believed to be from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar originally, but on the day of the exam, he was allegedly within the MMR jurisdiction. Police investigation teams are collecting digital data from the seized SIM cards to find out details of the mastermind.
Till now, six people who appeared for the Mumbai Police Recruitment Examination-2025 have been arrested for cheating. Out of the six, four were caught using Bluetooth devices, and two were caught for impersonation after sending dummy candidates with their hall tickets to take the written exam. The Tilak Nagar police arrested two accused named Ganesh Vighane, 32, and Rameshwar Wagh, 24, from Beed and Sambhaji Nagar, respectively. Investigations revealed that Vighane and Wagh were wearing skin-coloured in-ear earphones and were caught while entering the examination hall at Somaiya College, one of the centres for the examination.
“While the candidates enter the hall, they are frisked and subsequently their hall tickets are checked. During the check, one security personnel noticed a lump between the legs of one candidate. It appeared to be a block, which turned out to be an electronic device, black in colour,” said an official privy to the investigation.
After the first candidate was caught, the other candidates were once again checked, and another was found with a similar-looking device. While frisking Vighane, a small electronic device labelled HPSFR 125C 600V was found stuck between his legs on the inside of his pants. It was secured using adhesive tape. The device had a SIM card socket and two empty sockets. One SIM card was found in each of the devices. Upon further inspection, they also discovered flesh-coloured in-ear earphones, which were barely visible to the naked eye. Police said, “It is minuscule. Barely visible. We had to check twice or thrice before spotting the earphones.”
A similar device with the number E203950 C96 US was found from Wagh. He revealed that he received the device from his friend, Samadhan More, who had gotten it from his acquaintance, Arjun Jarwal, all residents of Sambhaji Nagar. Police are now tracing and will then question these individuals to uncover the higher link behind the cheating syndicate.
“We inserted the obtained SIM card into a mobile phone. It turned out to be a regular SIM card with a 5G connection. The plan was for them to get a phone call as the exam began, and the caller would narrate the answers to the exam questions, which the candidate would hear using the skin-coloured in-ear earphones and write the answers as narrated,” said the official.
The two candidates were promised high marks in the written exam, increasing their chances of securing police jobs (as constables) with the unknown accused. The other candidates were arrested by the Oshiwara, Kasturba Marg, Kandivli, and South Mumbai police stations. This year, 62,000 aspirants from across Maharashtra appeared for the police recruitment examination for the constable post held at 90 centres across Mumbai.
Features of the in-ear earphone
>> Camouflaged design: Often flesh-toned or transparent
>> Small size: Fits deeply inside the ear canal for minimal visibility
>> Battery-powered: Have tiny batteries that last several hours
>> Paired with hidden microphones and transmitters using which users can receive answers in real-time
>> Earphones are connected to a collaborator who dictates answers to exam questions
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