Journalism of Courage
THE probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the state-wide dummy candidate racket has unearthed the identities of at least 25 more government servants who were selected through the racket, taking the number of such government employees to 75.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CID, which is probing the scam, has arrested 10 persons who allegedly operated the racket. The arrested accused include alleged kingpin Prabodh Rathod, a dismissed government employee from Nanded, impersonators including two police officers of assistant inspector rank, a CID handwriting expert and a policeman who was part of the initial probe into the racket.
The SIT, which is investigating recruitments done via the racket between 2010 and 2016, has filed three chargesheets in the case and is likely to arrest more government officials in the coming days. Other than the 10 racketeers, it has also arrested 23 government servants who were recruited through the racket. These include education officers, tribal development officers, clerks, engineering officers, irrigation inspectors and officers from the state secretariat. But the probe team suspects that as many as 700 dummy candidates had appeared for recruitment exams across the state between 2010 and 2016.
“Till over a month ago, we had a list of 50 government servants of various ranks who were recruited through the racket. Recently, we have started receiving additional information from various sources about people who have been recruited through the same racket. After primary verification, we have identified 25 more government officials, taking the number to 75. These recruitments took place at various places, but through the same racket,” said a senior CID officer.
In another development in the case, a fresh FIR was filed at the Deccan police station in June in connection with a different kind of fraud, allegedly perpetrated by racketeers of the same scam.
