E-Paper
Army recruitment scam: CBI-Army joint raid leads to arrest of two in Pune
Army and CBI in a joint operation conducted in Pune have arrested two persons for alleged malpractices in the recruitment of multi-tasking staff. The accused are lower rank Indian Army NCOs
Pune: The Indian Army and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a joint operation conducted in the city have arrested two persons for alleged malpractices in the recruitment of multi-tasking staff (MTS). The accused are lower rank Indian Army non-commissioned officers (NCO and will be produced in court by CBI.
CBI has arrested two officials of the rank of hawaldar in the Indian Army in an alleged bribery case of Rs50,000. It was alleged that the complainant was selected to the post of MTS in the examination taken by Army Ordnance Corps., Pune and received a call letter and he was to join at Ordnance factory, Wardha (Maharashtra) on or before November 19, 2021 along with the original call letter. It was further alleged that under the pretext of early joining formalities, the accused took the original call letter of the complainant and demanded a bribe of Rs2.5 lakh and agreed to accept the initial amount of Rs50,000. It was also alleged that an amount of Rs30,000 was transferred by the complainant through payments app PhonePe to the account of one of the accused. Subsequently, both the accused allegedly came to accept the remaining amount of Rs20,000. CBI laid a trap and caught the accused while demanding and accepting the said amount. Searches were conducted at the premises of the accused Hawaldar Susant Nahak and Naveen from Southern Command, Pune which led to recovery of incriminating documents relating to the case. Both the accused were produced on Wednesday before the court of special judge, CBI cases, Pune and were remanded to five-day police custody.
In May, Lieutenant Colonel Bhagat Preetsingh Sartajsingh Bedi was arrested for his alleged involvement in the army recruitment question paper leak case. The city police had filed two FIRs, one at Vishrantwadi police station and the second at Wanowrie police station, on March 1 for the leak that led to the cancellation of the recruitment exam. Nearly 30,000 aspirants were scheduled to appear for the exam across 40 centres.
Two major-rank officers, Major Murugan Thangavelu (47) and Major Vasant Vijay Kilari (45) were arrested earlier in the Wanowrie case apart from Kishore Mahadev Giri (40) of Baramati; Madhav Sheshrao Gitte (38) of Sappers Vihar colony in Pune; Bharat Lakshman Adakmol (37) from Pune’s Pachora; Gopal Yuvraj Koli (31) of BEG Centre in Dighi; and Uday Dattu Auti (23) of BEG Khadki. The suspects arrested in Vishrantwadi were identified by the police as Ali Akhtar Khan (47), Azad Lal Mohammed Khan (37) and Mahendra Chandrabhan (37).
In June, the crime branch and the intelligence agencies attached to the Southern Command had busted a job racket where youths were lured by the false promise of jobs in the Territorial Army (TA), Indian Railways and various banks. The sleuths had arrested - Bharat Krishna Kate and Pandit Pawar - from Solapur. The racket operated through a fraud website wherein fake exams were held besides medical tests and training sessions took place at different locations across the country. The Southern Command of the Army had said that, “A fraudulent recruitment module — involving 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 being run from Pune — was exposed jointly by army and police authorities based on an input provided by intelligence agencies of the Southern Command.”
In an earlier press release, the Southern Command stated, “Indian Army continues with its policy of zero tolerance for corruption. On a recent tip-off about likely malpractice in recruitment of multi-tasking staff (MTS), the Indian Army in Southern Command and CBI in joint investigation are enquiring into the possible malpractices by lower-level staff.”
