The government might not have realised the misuse of facemasks, which were mandated during the Covid-19 pandemic, until nine people were caught while appearing for MHADA’s recruitment exams as proxies early this year. An inquiry later found 30 more proxies.

According to police sources, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) declared vacancies for the recruitment of 579 posts in 2021. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the exam was conducted online at 106 centres across the state in January and February this year through an IT company. At nine exam centres, including in Thane, Mumbai, Satara, Nagpur, Nashik, Nandgaon and Amravati, proxies of nine candidates were caught. Police in each district filed an FIR.