Mumbai police recruitment drive: Cheats break world record and get caught!

Candidates during a fitness test for police recruitment, at Naigaon police ground, Dadar. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

A few candidates participating in the recruitment drive of the Mumbai police broke the world record for men in the 1,600-metre race. Baffled, the cops probed and found out that they had cheated. Nikhil Yadav and his friend Vikas Sardar, the first to get caught, exchanged chips that record running time before each lap. Finishing at 3 minutes and 42 seconds, they broke the world record of a Moroccan athlete whose runtime is 3 minutes 43 seconds.

According to World Athletics, the international sports governing body, Hicham El Guerrouj from Morocco holds the world record title among men for completing 1,600-metre run in 3 minutes 43 seconds and 13 milliseconds. In the police recruitment drive, the 1,600-metre race is divided into four laps of 400 metres each. Most candidates take at least 11-12 minutes ideally. However, some candidates completed the race in just 3 minutes 42 seconds, breaking the world record.

This is what tags containing chips, used in police recruitment tests, look like

Here's how they did it. Mumbai police use a technology that calculates the running time accurately. They have a contract with Timing Technologies India Pvt Ltd, which uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) mechanism that automatically identifies and tracks tags fixed with chips, which are attached to candidates' shoes/legs. The chips calculate the running time.

Before the race, each candidate is given a pair of chips to be tied to their shoes. Police said they believe that Nikhil Virendra Yadav and his friend Vikas Devidas Sardar exchanged their chips before each lap. During the first lap, Yadav wore his as well as Sardar's chips (total four) and completed the first 400-metre lap with the fastest running time, whereas Sardar completed the round slowly to keep his energy intact for the second lap.

In the second lap, Sardar took all the four chips and ran at a fast speed, while Yadav was slow to conserve energy for the third round. They switched for the third and fourth laps as well, and as result, the total running time of both Yadav and Sardar was 3 minutes 42 seconds and 950 milliseconds. They switched the chips on the track, said cops.

Candidates during the police recruitment drive, at Naigaon police ground in Dadar. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Further investigation, including the examination of CCTV cameras, revealed that both the candidates are great runners and Yadav had indeed completed the first 400 metres in well under a minute. In another track, Sardar took around one minute to complete another lap. Inspector Rajendra Karbhor, who was deployed at Marol recruitment camp, was shocked at the identical results of Yadav and Sardar. An athlete himself, Karbhor knew of the world record and was surprised that they apparently broke it.

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Karbhor checked the CCTV cameras and saw that they had exchanged their chips. Upon questioning, both Yadav and Sardar admitted to cheating and were disqualified at the spot. He informed the Powai police who registered an FIR. A few days ago, eight more candidates were booked for cheating the same way. The Powai police have so far filed three FIRs.

11 minutes
Approx time taken by most candidates to run 1,600 metres