Hyderabad: A Chennai police team led by deputy commissioner of police P. Aravindan was in Hyderabad to question the wife of an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in connection with the Hitech cheating in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

“Joicy Joy, the wife of the IPS officer and her associate, Dr P. Rambabu, were being questioned by the Chennai police team, and they will be taken to Chennai later,” said the Hyderabad police task force inspector S. Srinivas Rao.

The Hyderabad police has arrested Joy, a teacher at an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) coaching centre and P Rambabu, director, La Excellence Coaching Centre, on a tip off from the Chennai police.

The duo’s role in helping the IPS officer, Assistant Superintendent of police Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, Sameer Karim in cheating in the UPSC main examination came to light when he was caught at the examination centre with hi-tech gadgets.

Karim, who was selected for the IPS in 2015 and was allotted to the Tamil Nadu cadre, was appearing in UPSC examination once more as he wanted to join the IAS.

However, his plan to copy the character of a Bollywood movie Munnabhai MBBS and get help from his wife over Bluetooth phone fell flat as he came under the scanner of the Intelligence Bureau.

According to the police, Karim, from Aluva in Kerala, had come to the examination centre with gadgets such as a micro spy camera on his chest linked to Google Drive, a mobile phone and a Bluetooth enabled ear piece. Four Intelligence Bureau (IB) detectives who had shadowed him frisked Karim thoroughly to recover the gadgets hidden in socks and folds of his dress.

“Karim’s plan was to scan the question paper and send it to his wife through Google Drive who in turn will dictate him the answers over phone through the hands free device,” a Chennai police official said.

In a clever move to convince the security at the examination centre of his integrity, the IPS officer had handed over his mobile phone at the gate and apologised for forgetting to leave it in the car.

Apparently he caught the eye of the IB as he had cheated in an earlier exam on Saturday following which his wife also emerged as a suspect.

Dr P. Rambabu was also a good friend of Karim as both of them were engaged in the work of coaching for UPSC, Hyderabad police said.

The police in Hyderabad recovered computer hard discs, an iPad, laptops and communication devices from the coaching institute in Hyderabad and handed them over to visiting team of Chennai police.

Interestingly, Karim, an electronics engineer by background, had also set up IAS coaching institutes in three places in Kerala including Thiruvananthapuram. During his association with Rambabu he changed her names of his centres as La Excellence Coaching Institute.

Karim had written his first UPSC exam in 2013 and failed. In 2015 he secured 112th rank and was allotted to IPS. However, he was not happy and made third attempt to join IAS and ended up behind bars.