A candidate who secured the first rank in Karnataka’s Village Administrative Officer (VAO) recruitment examination has been detained after police alleged that he used a mobile phone and Google Lens to scan the question paper during the test in Shiggaon, Haveri district.
Police in Hanagal detained Shankar Bannur, a resident of Elepete in Hanagal, on Friday afternoon and handed him over to Shiggaon police, according to a report by Prajavani. He had scored 151.25 marks to rank first in the state in the recently conducted VAO recruitment examination.
Police sources told the newspaper that Bannur carried a mobile phone into the examination room, scanned the question paper using the Google Lens application and used the information to fill in the OMR answer sheet. The alleged act was captured by closed-circuit television cameras at the examination centre, the sources said.
The police sources also said Bannur was prepared to confess. According to their account of his statement, he was asked to show only his Aadhaar card at the entrance and was allowed into the centre with the phone. He allegedly found his assigned number at a desk in the last row, opened the phone there and scanned the question paper using Google Lens before marking the OMR sheet.
The report said the candidate’s result had prompted discussion on social media and complaints from other candidates to the Karnataka Examinations Authority. The complaints questioned how Bannur had secured 151.25 marks in the VAO examination when he had reportedly scored 40.96 per cent in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination, 49 per cent in the Pre-University Course examination and only 25 marks in a constable recruitment examination.
The alleged use of a smartphone inside the examination hall has raised questions about the effectiveness of entry checks and surveillance arrangements at recruitment test centres. The account cited by Prajavani indicates that the entrance screening focused on Aadhaar identification, while the alleged phone use took place inside the room without being detected by staff at the time.
The case also places the examination centre’s CCTV system at the centre of the investigation. Police sources said the footage was being treated as evidence in the action against the candidate. The report did not provide details of the specific sections invoked, whether the candidate had been formally arrested or whether the examination authority had cancelled his result.
The allegations remain subject to the police investigation and due legal process. The next steps are expected to include examination of the CCTV footage, statements from officials and other candidates, and action by the Karnataka Examinations Authority on the candidate’s result and eligibility for appointment.
