Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh): A police constable was sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Special STF Court in Gwalior for using a solver to pass the polic erecruitment exam on Monday.

The constable named Dharmendra Sharma, was sentenced regarding the police recruitment exam in 2013. Sharma, who had been serving at the Vijay Nagar police station in Indore for 11 years, was found guilty of cheating to secure his job.

The case came to light in 2022 when one of Sharma’s relatives filed a complaint with the STF headquarters in Bhopal. The complaint revealed that Sharma had used a solver to write his exams twice in 2013. While he failed in April, he succeeded in September and became a constable without personally appearing for the exam. At the time, Sharma was only 19 years old.

STF formed a team to investigate, but gathering evidence after nine years proved challenging. The team retrieved Sharma’s answer sheets, which had been preserved due to the Vyapam scam. Handwriting analysis confirmed that the writing on the answer sheets did not match Sharma's writing.

Within four months, the court completed the trial. Judge Nitiraj Singh Sisodia sentenced Sharma to two terms of 7 years each and imposed a fine of ₹20,000. Despite the conviction, the STF could not identify the solver who wrote the exams.

The court stressed that dishonest candidates in government positions can harm the system and emphasised the importance of strict punishment to deter such acts and maintain trust in recruitment processes.