E-Paper
Chandigarh: 5 sentenced to 3-year RI for cheating in firemen recruitment exam
The court observed that malaise of cheating needs to be curbed with heavy hand to preserve the faith of large number of youth aspiring to land jobs in a country where jobs particularly government jobs are becoming scarce day-by-day
Terming cheating a termite that eats into fair examination process, and denies fair and equal opportunity to unemployed youths toiling hard to get into government services, a local court has convicted five men accused of cheating in the 2022 firemen recruitment exam.
The court of additional chief judicial magistrate TPS Randhawa sentenced them to three-year rigorous imprisonment and also imposed a fine of ₹2,000 each.
Station fire officer for MC, Satpal Singh had alleged that Aman, Vikram Singh and Anand had appeared in the exam on May 21, 2022. But their faces didn’t match with the admit cards issued by Panjab University. When they were asked to provide their signatures for comparison, they refused and confessed that they were impersonating the actual candidates.
Vikram was actually Vijay Kumar of Kaithal, Aman was Vikas of Hisar and Anand was Vinit of Jhajjar.
Vijay, Vikas and Vinit were arrested and booked under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Sector-26 police station.
Subsequently, two of the actual candidates who sent the impersonators, Aman and Vikram, were also arrested, while Anand remains at large. During trial, the prosecution examined seven witnesses including organisers of the exam, fire department officials and the investigating officer.
Accused Vijay, Vikram, Vikas and Aman took the plea that they were arrested merely on the basis of suspicion of the complainant.
Vinit claimed he had nothing to do with the exam and was falsely implicated while visiting the Sector-26 police station to meet a friend on May 21, 2022.
The court observed that the complainant had deposed that the accused were rounded up by him and were found in the possession of Aadhaar cards of the actual candidates, which proved that they were impersonating the candidates.
“The malaise of cheating in exams has assumed alarming proportions and it is an anathema to fair procedure of the selection process in services... This malaise of cheating needs to be curbed with heavy hand to preserve the faith of large number of youth aspiring to land jobs in a country where jobs particularly government jobs are becoming scarce day-by-day,” the court observed, while convicting the accused.
