Fact Check: Mass cheating at UPSC civil services exam in Uttar Pradesh caught on tape? No, it happened during an LLB exam

In the video, we can see a man going from class to class showing how mass cheating is taking place at an exam centre. The students can be seen with guides and answer sheets. The video ends when another person stops the man from filming.

Sharing this video on X, a user wrote in the caption “IAS Exam centres of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand! The future of Indian governance. Look at the IAS, IPS officers from North India who will run the future Indian government. He said that our country is proud of these North Indians. Shame on you.” (Translated from Tamil) (Archive)

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading. The incident from the video took place in 2024 during an LLB exam, not UPSC civil services exam.

Using a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, we found a report by India Today from March 1, 2024. The report with the title ‘Students caught red-handed while cheating, video goes viral of this UP’s exam’ showed an extended version of the viral video.

According to the report, the cheating took place during an LLB examination in the presence of teachers. The video emerged from Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh.

A February 24, 2024, report by Zee News also stated that the incident of mass cheating took place during an LLB exam at City Law College in Barabandi. The same name of the college can also be heard by the person who recorded the mass cheating.

Dainik Bhaskar also reported on the incident with the title ‘Cheating caught in Barabanki, exam cancelled: In LLB exam, a youth had shown mass cheating live on Facebook, college fined Rs 2 lakh.’

The report stated, “LLB student Shivam Singh had live streamed the mass cheating that was taking place during the first shift of the examination on February 27 at the City Law College located at Lakshbar Bajha in Safdarganj area of Barabanki on his Facebook account.” (Translated from Hindi)

The LLB examinations were being conducted under the purview of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University. After the incident came to light the vice chancellor of the university, Prof Pratibha Goyal constituted an inquiry committee. A fine of Rs 2 lakh was imposed on the City Law College for tarnishing the image of the university by allowing the cheating.

In India, examinations for entrance into civil services—IAS, IPS and IFS—are conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

As per the news reports, the viral video showed a mass cheating incident during an LLB examination that took place on February 27, 2024. It is not related to civil services examinations conducted by UPSC.

Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the claim is misleading.