Stay long enough with your other half, and you start looking like them – at least according to some research.

So one man in the Indian state of Punjab decided to put that to the test. Sort of.

On Jan 7, Angrez Singh, 25, dressed up as a woman and pretended he was his girlfriend, Ms Paramjit Kaur, to attend a recruitment examination on her behalf, Indian media reported on Jan 15.

The test was being conducted for job vacancies at the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, news website India.com reported.

Singh went all out in his attempt to pass off as Ms Kaur: He donned a woman’s outfit, put on bangles, a bindi and lipstick. He also used fake identification documents and voter cards.

The first hour of the examination went smoothly for Singh, WION news outlet reported, but university officials grew suspicious after noticing something peculiar about his attire.

The disguise was eventually exposed when his fingerprints failed to match Ms Kaur’s on a biometric device, news website NDTV reported.

University officials then filed a complaint with the police and Singh was arrested.

“Angrez Singh was impersonating a female candidate identified as Paramjit Kaur,” Dr Rajeev Sud, the university’s vice-chancellor told Indian media.

“He has been arrested and the candidature of the real candidate (has) also (been) invalidated,” he added.

The police said they are investigating the case and will take appropriate action.

The authorities are also probing whether Singh was part of a larger network. He used fake documents, which suggests he was not acting alone and had professional help, they said.