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Engineering, medical graduates among the suspects

The Central Crime Branch of the Bangalore Police has arrested 14 persons in connection with the impersonation of candidates at the recently held Comed-K test.

The arrested have been identified as Mohammed Zia-Ul-Haq, Brijnandan, Motilal Jaiswal, Jaikumar Koushal, Rahul Verma, Mohammed Jafar, Ashutosh Kumar, Mohammed Rizwan, Aijaz Ahmed, Ankit Kumar, Vivekananda, Subodh Kumar, Avinash Sinha and Pankaj Prasad Verma. Police sources say that all the arrested hail from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

The City police had detained eight persons in connection with the case. The case was transferred to the CCB on Wednesday. Sources in the police said all the 14 were detained at Bengaluru International Airport - eight on Monday and six on Tuesday - following a thorough check by the Central Industrial Security Force  (CISF) personnel who found discrepancies in their identity cards, examination hall tickets and air tickets. The CISF handed over the detained men to the City police, T R Suresh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-East) said.

Initial investigations disclosed that the 14 men have appeared for the test as impersonators at KLE College, Rajajinagar, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Seshadripuram College, R V Engineering College (all in Bangalore), Devaraj Urs Medical College, Chikkaballapur, Visveshwaraya Engineering College, Devanahalli and a few colleges in Davangere and Gulbarga.

A majority of the suspects have completed their engineering course while some are dental and medical graduates, working at various places in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Sources said they were paid between Rs four lakh and Rs five lakh for impersonating in the test and the deal was worked out through agents.

Two special teams from CCB are to be sent to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to track down these agents.

All the arrested have been remanded in police custody till May 21.

A senior official handling the case told Deccan Herald  that the police were suspecting the involvement of a few insiders in Comed-K and also some of the college managements in the racket.