TOEFL exam racket busted

Hyderabad: Eleven persons, including six students, have been arrested by the Task Force (West) Police on Saturday for allegedly running an exam racket. The accused impersonated themselves as candidates for the Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) Examination.

The police received information that some persons were impersonating for candidates to write for their TOEFL examination at an authorised IP zone in Vikarampuri Colony, under Karkhana police station limits. A team raided the IP zone and arrested the owner, SK Wajid Basha, 36, Ifteqaruddin, 32, the administrative in-charge of the zone and three alleged impersonators. The impersonators were identified as Md Rafi Ahmed Taha, 30, of Tolichowki, Bupesh Sharma, 28, of Attapur and S Ramakrishna, 36 of Trimulgherry. The impersonators had appeared in place of the real examinees – Md Abdul Rasheed, 23, of Rajendranagar, Md Sarfaraz Hussain, 28, of Charminar, S Kanishka, 24, a native of Guntur, Meet Vishnu Bhai Patel, 19, and Krupal Kumar Patel, 24, both native of Gujarat and Anathar, 35, a native of TN.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that the racket was being run by Wajid. He was the owner of the centre where the online examination was being held.

“Wajid, along with Ifteqaruddin, had been running the business in connivance with the impersonators for the past couple of years. He would charge Rs 1 lakh per student to arrange the impersonators who sit exams in their instead,” said DCP, Task Force, B Limba Reddy