2 in Gujarat caught for ‘thumb’ fraud in Rly exam

VADODARA: In a desperate attempt to secure a railway job, a candidate allegedly removed his thumb skin and pasted it on his friend’s thumb so that the latter could clear biometric verification and sit for the recruitment exam here in his place, police said.

But the crude attempt to trick the biometric machine was exposed when the transferred piece of skin fell off, an official said on Thursday. The candidate and the ‘proxy’, both hailing from Bihar, have been arrested.

A senior doctor said they would have never been able to pull off the trickery even if the transferred piece of skin had stuck on.

City police arrested candidate Manish Kumar and his friend Rajyaguru Gupta, both natives of Munger district in Bihar, for alleged cheating, said Additional Commissioner of Police S M Varotariya.

To prevent cheating (through impersonation), all the candidates were required to give their thumb impression which was matched with their Aadhaar data through a biometric device,” said Varotariya.

When a candidate who identified himself as Manish Kumar gave his thumb impression, verification failed despite repeated attempts, he said. The exam supervisor grew suspicious when he noticed that the candidate was trying to hide his left hand by putting it in the pocket of his pants. “When the supervisor sprayed sanitiser on his left thumb, the skin pasted on it came off,” the police official said.