Police officials have arrested five people for attempting to cheat in Rajasthan Eligibility Exam for Teachers. “The candidates were found wearing “chappals” with Bluetooth devices fitted inside the sole,” officials have said.

Soon after catching the first person, the police discovered an entire cheating racket across Rajasthan.  Accused bought slipper at Rs 20,000-30,000 & tried to sell it to students at Rs 5-6 lakhs, said SS Indoliya, Bikaner ASP

Similar chappals have been found with Bluetooth and mobile devices in Bikaner and Sikar.

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“The chappal is such it has an entire phone inside and a Bluetooth device. The candidate had a device inside his ear and someone from outside the exam hall was helping him cheat,” police officer Ratan Lal Bhargav said.

The cheating plot seems to be a small-scale industry in itself and the police are still trying to find more about it. “The “cheating chappals” were “cleverly manufactured” and a few reports suggest they could have been sold to candidates with the hardware for cheating for as much as Rs 2 lakh,” NDTV sources have said.

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“We found one man with devices in his slippers to help him cheat. We caught him at the beginning of the exam. We are finding out where all he has links and who all are involved. We immediately alerted other districts as well. In the next phase of the exam, nobody can go in with slippers, shoes or socks into the exam centre,” Ajmer police officer Jagdish Chandra Sharma said.

Prior to the examination, mobile services and internet were shut down in five districts of Rajasthan for 12 hours today to avoid cases of cheating in the REET. Nearly 16 lakh students wrote the test for 31,000 posts in government schools. Since there was a large number of candidates scheduled to write the exam, the state government had made elaborate arrangements for security and travel amid the pandemic. 

It is mandatory for a person to pass the REET in order to become a teacher in Rajasthan government schools.