2019 Police recruitment drive: Man from Hingoli sent dummy candidate for his written exam, arrested

Senior Inspector Jitendra Pawar from Bhoiwada police said, “This is the 16th FIR we have registered related to the frauds that took place during the Mumbai Police recruitment process for 2019. We have made arrests in most of the cases.”

The police said Shinde had applied for a job of a constable. On November 14, 2021, written tests under the recruitment drive were conducted at various centers in Maharashtra for which 1.09 lakh aspirants appeared. Shinde, who managed to clear his written test by sending his dummy, himself appeared for his physical test.

In early 2022, an interim list of selected individuals and those in the waiting list for the 1,076 posts of constables was released. “On Monday, 54 candidates, including 48 police constables and six police constable drivers, were called for appointment. Before this, a final scrutiny of documents, photographs and videos taken during the written and physical exams were held,” said Pawar.

During the scrutiny, it came to light that Shinde had appeared for his physical tests but sent his dummy for the written examination. “A video showed an unknown person instead of the candidate giving the written exam. Also, there were discrepancies between the candidate’s signature on the answersheet and the signatures made by the candidate at various stages of the recruitment process other than during the written exam,” Constable Vaibhav Ghongde alleged in the complaint, based on which the FIR was lodged.

When questioned, Shinde claimed that he did not know the individual seen in the video, resulting in the Bhoiwada police station lodging a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery. Shinde was arrested and produced before the court, which remanded him to police custody till February 4.

“Shinde is not cooperating in the investigation. We are trying to trace the individual who appeared for the written examination on his behalf,” Pawar said.