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Pune: Former education official Shailaja Darade arrested for cheating job aspirants
Former deputy commissioner and commissioner in-charge of Maharashtra State Examination Council, Shailaja Darade, has been arrested in connection with a bribery case. She allegedly took bribes from people promising them jobs as school teachers.
The Hadapsar police on Monday evening arrested Shailaja Darade, former deputy commissioner and commissioner in-charge, Maharashtra State Examination Council (MSEC), in connection with a bribery case.
On February 22, 2023, an FIR was filed at Hadapsar police station against Darade and her brother Dadasaheb Darade following a complaint filed by Popat Sukhdev Suryavanshi (50) of Khanjonwadi in Atpadi tehsil of Sangli district.
Chetan Thorbole, assistant inspector, Hadapsar police station, said, “As per the complaint filed by Suryavanshi, we had registered an FIR and initiated investigation. We arrested Shailaja at around 4 pm on Monday and will produce her in court on Tuesday.”
Thorbole said that the police probe found that Shailaja had taken bribe from 44 people of ₹4.85 crore by promising them jobs as school teachers in the education department.
Suryavanshi while working as a teacher had met Shailaja who was an administrative officer in the education department in 2019 to get a teacher’s job for his relatives Pooja Popat Yadav and Nita Pandurang Randive.
The complainant alleged that Shailaja had demanded ₹12.15 lakh for each job appointment.
On June 15, 2019, the complainant handed over ₹27 lakh to Shailaja at Hadapsar on the Pune-Solapur highway. However, Shailaja failed to facilitate job or return the money, forcing Suryavanshi to approach the police.
A case was registered at Hadapsar police station under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.
MSEC conducts school scholarship examinations in the state.
