Haryana board exams: Mobile in hollow cardboard, bluetooth in turban

The board chairman said one of the examinees was using a cardboard thicker than usual, raising suspicion.(HT Photo)

HT, Rohtak: Cheating has always been common in Haryana board exams with friends and family members of students climbing multi-storey buildings to pass chits. But with higher security measures in place, candidates are trying to ensure they remain a step ahead of authorities.

Several students using innovative ways to cheat in the ongoing board exams have been caught by officials, with the latest case being of a Class 10 student who hid a mobile phone inside his hollow cardboard to ask answers from his friends during Social Science exam on Friday.

“A flying team led by board secretary Dhirendra Khadgata caught the student from a centre at Rohtak’s Farmana village. The cardboard he was using was thicker than usual, and made the flying squad suspicious. On checking, it was found that the student had put a mobile phone with SIM card inside,” said Jagbir Singh, chairman of the board.

Another incident

He further said that in Karnal, the Board caught a Class 12 Sikh student hiding a bluetooth device inside his turban. “The authorities were suspicious since the beginning, but refrained from making a move. Asking him to open his turban could backfire at us and become a religious issue. But in the end of the exam, when he tried adjusting the device to converse, we caught him red-handed,” Singh said.

The chairman said he was surprised to see students from rural background adopting such innovative methods to cheat, but maintained that the board authorities were always a step ahead.

“Some students devote more time in planning to cheat than actually study. The board has enough manpower to deal with such students. Recently, at a centre in Jhajjar, we hid live cameras to catch students copying,” he said.

So far, the board has registered 452 cases of cheating in the ongoing Class 10 and 12 exams.