'Nakal mafia' back in UP

‘Nakal mafia’ (gangs that take money from examinees and help them in copying during examinations) went on a rampage on the very first day of the Uttar Pradesh Board examinations torching and damaging schools, manhandling a principal besides killing one person in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad district.

Around 500 students have so far been caught using unfair means at the state board examinations that began in the state on Friday, sources said.

One person was shot dead and three others sustained bullet injuries, when some people tried to provide solved answers to their wards at an examination centre at Sarovday Nagar Inter College at Bheerpur in Allahabad district.

The gang members, who had taken money from several students to help them in cheating, opened fire as the parents of some of the students tried to ignore them and provide the ‘copying material' themselves, sources added.

Principal assaulted

In Fatehpur district, a principal of a school was assaulted by the gang members after the examination centre was shifted elsewhere.

Irked over the incident, a group of teachers of the school blocked traffic at the busy grand trunk road for a while, reports said.

At some places, the teachers and the examination centres in-charge were caught helping the examinees in cheating while at Gonda district, a police constable was found to be providing cheating material to the students.

Reports of use of unfair means and mass copying have been pouring in from other districts as well, education officials said.

The ‘nakal mafia' has been emboldened after the return of the SP rule as the party had, in the past, opposed using stringent measures to check copying.

It also opposed use of strict law to deal with the examinees using unfair means.

Last year thousands of examinees had left their exams after the authorities implemented strict measures against the gangs and the students, who were caught cheating.