Racket issuing fake Army appointment letters busted in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar, 6 arrested

Subsequently, in a joint operation with the Ahmednagar police, two more suspects, allegedly linked to the main racketeers who had provided the fake recruitment letter were also apprehended, officials said.

The arrested identified as Adarsh Kushwah (19), Mohitkumar Yadav (25), Anand Sharma (23) and Anshu Patel (20), were in possession of fake recruitment letters, while Lokeshkumar Rajput and Gopal Chaudhary, are suspected to be the racketeers who provided the certificates. Officials said that Rajput had in the past posed as an Army jawan and a forged identity card has also been recovered from him.

A First Information Report in the case has been registered at Bhingar Camp Police Station in Ahmednagar. All six suspects are from various places in Prayagraj and Gautam Buddh Nagar districts of Uttar Pradesh.

“It has come to light that the suspects were taking anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh from the candidates and were giving them Army appointment letters. A probe is being conducted on the suspected racket. We are probing whether any serving or retired Armed Forces personnel are linked to the suspects. The four people who were given forged appointment letters have been arrested as suspects in the case because in spite of not having appeared for any recruitment process, they had got the appointment letters in return for money,” said an officer.

Multiple cases of fraudsters posing as Army personnel have been unearthed by various police jurisdictions following inputs from the Military Intelligence of the Southern Command over the last few years. These cases have been reported from Pune, Nashik, and Ahmednagar districts in which imposters posing as Army officers or personnel, wearing Army uniforms, and posting photos in Army uniforms on social media have been arrested. In the context of the presence of several key defence establishments in these districts, such cases of impersonation pose a serious threat to security, officials said.

In many of these cases, the suspects were found having taken money from job aspirants on the pretext of helping them get defence jobs. The investigators have recovered forged documents such as identity cards, appointment letters, character certificates, service certificates and even tax deduction certificates, bank documents identifying the suspects as Army officers along with fake seals and letterheads of Army establishments in some cases.

Officials said that in all of the cases of impersonation of Army personnel, the suspects have had a motive to cheat aspiring youth in addition to taking advantage of their status as Army officers or personnel. The investigators have also observed that these suspects prefer to be present in areas surrounding military stations, where the movement of people in uniform is a common sight.