Hi-tech cheating in DU tests

It looks like a regular credit card but it isn't. This card works like a mobile phone and a tiny wireless ball-like earphone sets one up for two-way communication. The Chinese makers of the device designed the card with miniature earphones to look like a credit card.

And this device was used to cheat in tests. 

Detectives said the device was used in the recently-held admission test for Dhaka University's Kha unit.

Hours before the admission test for Ga unit of DU were to begin yesterday,  Detective Branch of police arrested three students with the device.

The device has a SIM card installed and transmits two-way voice once set up correctly, said DB officials. One just needs to have the tiny ball inserted in the ear and the credit-card-like device in the shirt pocket or wallet.

Raiding his Rajabazar home around 5:00am, a team of DB south led by Assistant Commissioner Saiful Islam, arrested a student of Dhaka University with five such devices.

They also arrested two more DU students in front of Square Hospitals on Panthapath around 9:00am with information from the first arrestee.

"The syndicate involved in such crimes using new technologies is large. We are trying to capture them," Saiful told The Daily Star. He did not disclose the names of the arrestees.

Detectives said the gang had planned to bring in more sophisticated technologies to cheat in exams.

DU Proctor Prof AM Amzad said they were surprised to learn this. Quoting DB, he said the device had a range of half a kilometre.

The situation has gotten to the point where the use of signal jamming devices during the admission tests has to be considered, he said.

Cheating in admission tests and other competitive examinations with the help of technology is not new. Many were arrested in the last few years for using hi-tech devices to cheat in exams.

Against the backdrop, the DU authorities for the first time this year sought the help of mobile courts, which monitored venues hosting exams of DU. They also banned all kind of devices including wristwatches.

Meanwhile, a mobile court sentenced a “candidate” to one year in jail yesterday for using a fake admit card to get in yesterday's admission test, reports our DU correspondent.

Convict Sanjay Kumar Shahani is from Khulna.

The university administration handed Sanjay's friend Mehedi Hasan from the same district over to Shahbagh Police Station for allegedly helping Sanjay sit for the test.

The one-hour test held at 56 centres in the capital began at 10:00am yesterday with more than 43,000 people vying for 1,170 spots.