Ahmedabad, April 29 : An IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, Rajnish Rai, who was allegedly caught cheating in a university exam, denied the allegation on Tuesday and blamed the copying controversy on a “mischievous campaign” to tarnish his image.

“The campaign unleashed against me appears to be motivated and I apprehend that certain elements which are against me have started this false and mischievous campaign to malign me and tarnish my image so that my integrity as an upright policeman is undermined,” Rai said in a statement sent via email.

Gujarat University has constituted an inquiry to probe the alleged cheating by Rai when he appeared for his first year LLB exam at Siddharth Law College in Gandhinagar last Friday. The University had also collected statements from the college principal, the supervisor and the observer in a sealed envelop.

Rai, who arrested D G Vanjhara and two other IPS officers in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, said: “The allegation of copying in the 1st year LLB examination levelled against me is totally false and baseless”.

Describing the events of the day, Rai said, “During the examination a lady invigilator had accosted an examinee (a girl) and was admonishing her rather loudly. As the noise was disturbing, I had requested the invigilator to speak softly.”

“It appears that my request had angered her. She came to me after a few minutes and started checking my belongings. She opened my pencil box and fished out a scale belonging to my six-year-old son, which I had hurriedly brought for using in the examination,” he further said.

Rai further said, “The scale had some childish scribbling done by my son, which seems to have attracted her attention. Therefore, I explained to her that the scribbling was made by my son and had no relevance to the present examination”.

“Without asking me any further questions, she started walking away with the scale and also asked me to come out of the room. As I refused to do so, she came back and snatched my answer paper and walked away”.

“After about 10 minutes I was called outside the room, where I was met by the same lady invigilator and the principal of the college. They told me I will get back my answer paper after half an hour and I could, thereafter, continue the exam.”

“I protested against such arbitrary action but with no avail. I was given back the answer paper after half an hour, and I wrote the paper within the rest of the time. I deposited the answer paper and left assuming the episode was closed,” the IPS officer said.

“Before leaving, I had requested the invigilator to return me the scale, but she refused to do so.”

Rai further said, “To my shock and surprise, stories started coming in the media from the next day alleging that I was caught copying in the exam.”