The arrested persons in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

A tech-savvy gang involved in supplying answers using phones to the candidates of competitive exams was busted on Sunday. Eleven persons, including six aspirants taking the SAIL mechanical engineering and undergraduate trainee exam, were arrested.

Of the six arrested candidates, three are NIT-Patna students.

One student each of IIT-Guwahati, RPS Engineering College, Patna, and National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology (NIFFT), Ranchi, were also intercepted for sporting watches that doubled as Internet-enabled cellphones.

Inspector-general of police (operations) Amit Kumar said the racketeers used to collect anything between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 6 lakh from each competitive exam candidate for supplying answers. They used to depute their men at the examination centres and had employed experts to solve the questions.

The solved answers were sent to the candidates through Internet. The examinees would get answers of the multiple questions on the screens of their wristwatches having the facility to chat and even make calls to the experts to know the answers, an investigating officer said.

Acting on a tip-off, a Special Task Force (STF) team of the state police conducted a raid at a private school behind the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Phuwarisharif — the centre of the SAIL mechanical engineering and undergraduate trainee exam. Eleven persons, including the six candidates and five racketeers, were arrested.

The raiding team seized 14 wristwatches having Internet and call facilities, nine ATM cards, 21 SIM cards, two laptops and four sets of question papers of the examination.

The arrested candidates have been identified as Abhishekh Bharti, Amit Kumar, Pravin Kumar (all second-year students of NIT, Patna), Manish Kumar (a student of IIT, Guwahati), Amit Ranjan (a student of RPS Engineering College, Patna) and Manish Kumar (a student of NIFFT, Ranchi).

Of the five racketeers arrested, Sanjeev Kumar was the kingpin of the tech-savvy gang.

Teacher of the private school, Kumar Rajesh Ranjan, was arrested on the charge of leaking the question papers of the exam.

The police said Sanjeev is a technical assistant at Sabour-based agriculture college in Bhagalpur. His three associates were also apprehended during the operation, the IG (operations) said.

The officer said all the arrested persons have been handed over to the economic offences unit, which has registered a case of forgery and cheating against them. “Efforts are on to apprehend the other members of the gang, who evaded the arrest,” the officer added.