BAREILLY: As the UP Board examinations, the world’s largest public school examinations, ended on Friday, the nakal mafia – gangs that helped students in cheating in the tests — occupied top-of-the-mind recall. Almost 51 students from Bareilly district alone were caught using unfair means during the exams, according to officials.Even though the education department’s official list of teachers or students involved in such incidents is yet to be compiled, sources said 12 fake invigilators were caught and around 10 were suspended for helping the examinees to cheat in Bareilly alone. Most of the cheating incidents go unreported as teachers, principals and employees of education department are involved in these, added sources."Nakal mafia strikes a deal with the school authorities and students for amounts ranging between Rs 2,000 per student to Rs, 20,000. The cheating charges are decided on the basis of methods adopted and the requirements of a student," said a senior teacher.The modus operandi of the nakal mafia involves helping the examinees either by dictating and writing answers on blackboards or allowing them to carry copying material to the classrooms. In 2010, district inspector of schools (DIOS) Dinesh Singh had smeared the blackboards of exam centres in Allahabad with cow dung to prevent the misuse."In special cases of cheating, nakal mafia sends an imposter on behalf of the student to appear in exams or changes their copies once the exam is over," said an official of the education department.In Bareilly, two such imposters were caught when a flying squad had learnt that few answersheets were exchanged at two different centres.The use of unfair practices is not just restricted to the exam centres. "Once the exams are over, the nakal mafia also tries to increase the marks of students at the evaluation centres. They track where the copies of their clients are being sent for correction and later, seal the deal with evaluators," said Suresh Rastogi, president of Uttar Pradesh Pradhanacharya Parishad.Citing the reasons for the spurt in the nakal mafia , Rastogi said, "After some state education ministers gave recognitions to schools, which did not meet the required standards, the use of unfair means started at those places. It was done deliberately by the politicians to run this racket. There are several schools which are blacklisted for cheating but still the education department makes them examination centres every year."This year, 59,814 and 48,376 students appeared for high schools and intermediate exams respectively from Bareilly district whereas a total of 71,20,265 students gave the exams from the state.When contacted, DIOS KP Singh said, "Due to the strict arrangements this year, the cases of cheating had gone down . An FIR was lodged against invigilators or school staff who were involved in such acts. I have submitted the report on such cases to the secretary of the UP Board and as per his guidelines, actions would be taken."