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Army recruitment exam fraud: CBI arrests Lt Col, sepoy
PUNE The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has nabbed a Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col)-rank official and a sepoy for leaking answer keys of armed forces recruitment exam
PUNE The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has nabbed a Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col)-rank official and a sepoy for leaking answer keys of armed forces recruitment exam. The arrested — Lt Col Vikash Raizada and Sepoy Alok Kumar, both from Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), Southern Command, Pune — were produced in the special CBI court at district court premises in Shivajinagar on Tuesday. The CBI judge has sent them to police custody till April 16
The CBI in its submission before special judge, CBI cases, stated that the case has lodged under 120 B, Section 7, PC Act 1988 on December 18, 2021 as an offshoot of the trap case on the basis of complaint dated December 11, 2021 by DSP T Gopal Naik, the investigating officer of the trap case.
It has been alleged that the accused Havalar Sushanta Nahak, his controlling officer Lt Col Raizada and sepoy Kumar are involved in illegal activities of the army recruitment process for the selection of various group C civilian posts —junior officer assistant (JOA), fireman, tradesman, mate and tailor — at the Central Ammunition Depot, Pulgaon through examination held during 2021.
It has been alleged that in respect of the said recruitment examination, accused Lt Col Raizada had sent answer keys of the question papers to Nahak on the mobile number of his wife through WhatsApp in the morning on September 8, 2021 before the start of the written exam on the same day at CAD, Pulgaon.
Thereafter the accused Nahak forwarded the said answer keys on the same day through WhatsApp to the mobile number of the accused applicant Priyanka, wife of Alok Kumar who was appearing in the said recruitment examination for the post of tailor.
It is alleged that two different amounts of ₹50,000 and ₹ 40,000 were sent from the bank account of the accused applicant Priyanka on September 7, 2021 through UPI to accused applicant Nahak. It is also alleged that the mobile chats also revealed the accused persons, Lt Col Raizada, Nahak, Kumar, all of AOC, Southern Command, Pune and Priyanka are involved in connection with recruitment process of 2020-2021 to various group C civilian posts, including leaking answer keys, the remand report stated.
It further added “that during the investigation it has been revealed that the accused Col Vikash Raizada was party to the criminal conspiracy with the other accused persons namely Sushanta Nahak and Alok Kumar to demand and obtain undue advantage from different candidates appearing in various recruitments of Group ‘C’ civilian posts in the army.”
Rajiv Kumar, additional superintendent, CBI, ACB, Pune in his remand application before the court prayed, “Therefore in view of the facts and circumstances, it is the prayer before the court that for the purpose of effective investigation and to unearth true facts and identity of other suspected officials and middlemen, four days police custody remand of the accused namely Lt Col Vikas Raizada and Alok Kumar may please be granted in interest of justice,” it stated. The Southern Command PRO Office stated that they will respond later.
