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Nursing officers’ recruitment at GMCH-32: One candidate, impersonator nabbed from Rajasthan
The impersonator, a nursing assistant at a Rajasthan hospital, had appeared in place of the candidate in the written test of the nursing officers recruitment at GMCH-32 in August 2022
Three days after police registered an impersonation and cheating case against six newly recruited nurses for using unfair means to get the job at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, police on Sunday arrested one of the candidates and the person who impersonated him in the written test, held in August last year.
The candidate is Rekhraj, 30, hailing from Rajasthan, while the impersonator is Joginder Kumar, 29, a nursing assistant at a hospital in Rajasthan, said police.
“Joginder appeared in the written test in place of Rekhraj. Both were arrested from Rajasthan. We will also nab the remaining accused soon,” a senior police officer said.
On April 19, authorities at GMCH, Sector 32, had sought criminal proceedings against the six new hires, following which a case was registered at the Sector 34 police station on April 20.
During a verification process after recruitment of the nursing officers, GMCH officials had noticed discrepancies in the photograph and signature of one candidate.
The person appeared to be different from the photograph on the application form, and the signature submitted at the time of filling the application also did not match on the admit card. There was a significant difference in the facial features of the candidate who took the test and the one who showed up to join as a nursing officer.
To check the possibility of more such cases, GMCH authorities had constituted a six-member scrutiny committee, headed by a senior professor and comprising officials from the nursing department, recruitment branch and IT department, to collect details of all nursing officers selected on the basis of the written test.
As per hospital authorities, fingerprints and signatures were taken in the presence of the committee to compare them with the data collected during recruitment. But five candidates did not appear before the committee by taking medical leave and later resigned with a 24-hour notice.
Dr Jasbinder Kaur, director-principal, GMCH, had subsequently written to the Chandigarh Police to probe all cases where attempts were made to get the job through impersonation.
182 nurses hired through written test
GMCH had issued advertisements for recruitment of 182 nursing officers in December 2021. The recruitments were to be done on the basis of merit obtained in a written test and there was no provision of interview. An external agency was hired to conduct the written test, which was held at 39 centres in Chandigarh on August 28, 2022.
A total of 10,594 candidates had appeared for the test, where videography/photography, thumb impression and signature of each candidate were taken. The successful candidates were called for document verification and counselling that was held in three phases at GMCH. Subsequently, the selected candidates received an offer of appointment and were asked to report for medical examination.
