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STF nabs kingpin of multiple job recruitment rackets
The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested an alleged kingpin of multiple job recruitment gangs from Meerut district on Thursday midnight, officials said.
The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested an alleged kingpin of multiple job recruitment gangs from Meerut district on Thursday midnight, officials said.
The alleged kingpin was identified as Arvind Rana, STF officials said.
The gang was involved in leaking question papers and using solvers in different government job recruitment examinations for the past 15 years, they said.
The STF officials said Rana was wanted in multiple cases, including two cases lodged in connection with a solvers’ racket in Lucknow and Meerut districts in UP and two cases registered in Delhi.
They said he had been evading arrest for six years after his name surfaced as the kingpin of a major racket operational during the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examination on October 6, 2013. That racket had come to light with the arrest of 10 people in Lucknow.
They said the SSC examination was meant for recruitment of sub-inspector in Delhi Police, Central Armed Police Forces and assistant sub-inspector in Central Industrial Security Force and intelligence officer in Narcotics Control Bureau. It was suspected that Rana’s gang managed to get over 45 people to clear the examination in this attempt.
Inspector general (IG) of police, STF, Amitabh Yash said Rana’s name also surfaced in the racket busted during the UP Police constable’s recruitment in June 2018.
He said the accused had a wide network across UP and Delhi through which he operated multiple job recruitment gangs. He said Rana simultaneously operated multiple gangs and never shared the information about one gang’s operation with members of another gang.
The STF was tracking Rana for long and arrested him from his hideout in Akshardham colony in Meerut, the IG said. He also said the accused was planning to get his candidates recruited in the Delhi fire services department.
Another STF official said Rana’s archrival was his former accomplice Ankit Punia, who had established a separate gang in 2018. He said at one stage Punia had gradually wiped out Rana’s gang by offering more money to people working with the latter.
He said Rana, however, managed to reorganise his gang after Punia was arrested from Baghpat on April 16, 2019. Punia is a resident of Meerut. He worked in a multi-national company before allegedly joining the solvers’ gang operated by Rana.
He said it was said that Rana had tipped off police about Punia.
