Following an input from the Southern Command’s Military Intelligence, the Pune police busted a job cheating racket in which aspiring youths were given fake recruitment letters of the Territorial Army (TA), Indian Railways and various banks for large sums of money.
Probe has revealed that the suspects used an elaborate system of fake web portals, exams and medical tests and even conducted fake training sessions at various locations across the country.
Sleuths from the Southern Command Military Intelligence had been analysing threads of a case in which a fake recruitment letter from the TA had been issued to a candidate and results of a fake recruitment process were published on a website with a domain name similar to the official website of the TA recruitment process. The suspects had also published a list of selected candidates by classifying and sorting them as per the Army’s Command formations.
One person, who runs a pre-recruitment training academy for army aspirants, has been arrested in this connection from Solapur district of Maharashtra, they said.
“A fraudulent recruitment module involving the issuance of recruitment documents and circulation of results of prospective candidates through fake websites, for their selection into various government services like railways, banking, and Territorial Army, etc, being run from Pune, has been busted jointly by Army and police authorities,” a defence release said.
It was busted following a tip-off provided by the intelligence agencies of the army’s Southern Command, it said.
The module recently hosted a fake website of the Territorial Army with uploaded names of selected candidates on it and a probe revealed that they were charging a hefty amount for the fraudulent recruitment from innocent aspirants wanting to join these services, it added.
“The aspirants were not only charged for their selection, but also were made to bear the expenses of travel, boarding and lodging during their trips to different dubious locations for fraudulent written exams, medical tests, and training to post the fraudulent recruitment,” the release stated.
On the intervening night of May 31 and June 1, Bharat Krishna Kate was apprehended from Solapur, along with ample evidence, by a team of the police’s crime branch, it said.
A police officer from the crime branch (Unit V) said, “So far, it has come to light so far that the accused and his aides cheated some job aspirants to the tune of Rs 13.50 lakh on the false promise of jobs.”
Kate runs an academy, where pre-recruitment training is provided to those who aspiring to join the army, he said.
The accused, with the help of his aides, used to tell the aspiring candidates that they have to pay Rs 6 lakh for a job in the army and Rs 7 lakh for a job of a travelling ticket examiner (TTE) in the railways, he added.
“The associates of the accused would then send the candidates to different cities for bogus medical examinations and used to declare bogus pass results on a bogus website,” the officer added.
The defence release said that the touts would charge Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh from the aspiring candidates, giving them false promises for their selection in government services.
“The innocent aspirants were made to believe about their selection through fake call letters, admit cards, joining letters, medicals and training at dubious locations. The duo is part of a bigger racket, which is being probed by Crime Branch and Army,” it said.
The joint proactive action of the Southern Command and the Maharashtra police is reflective of the army’s zero- tolerance towards corruption, the defence authorities said in the release.
They also urged candidates not to fall prey to these inimical elements and report any such luring incidents to army authorities immediately.
