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CAPF recruitment: In 3 days, 5 ‘unfit’ overweight candidates declared ‘fit’, CBI lodges FIR

CBI lodged an FIR against eight people, including two chief medical officers and a senior doctor of BSF, for allegedly manipulating the medical records of five candidates during CAPF recruitment last year.

The FIR states that the ITBP was designated as Nodal Force in 2021 for recruitment of medical officers for CAPF. (File/Representative image)

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against eight people, including two chief medical officers and a senior doctor of the Border Security Force, for allegedly manipulating the medical records of five overweight candidates during the recruitment in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF)-2022-2023.

Investigation has revealed that two of the applicants, Gagan Sharma and Mukul Vyas, weighed 80.340 kg and 91.280 kg during their Physical Standard Test (PST), but within three days, the Review Medical Examination (RME) board recorded their weights as 69 kg (a difference of 11.340 kg) and 81 kg (a difference of 10.280 kg).

The matter was reported to the CBI on March 28, 2022, after a written complaint was filed by IG (Pers) of BSF, Ayush Mani Tiwari, and an FIR was lodged on Tuesday on the basis of an inquiry report of BSF. On November 3, DG (BSF) also granted approval under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption (PoC) Act to conduct an investigation against Dr S K Jha, Dr Mrinal Hazarika and Dr Bani Saikia Chetia, respectively.

The FIR includes the names of senior BSF officials and five candidates involved in the case. “An FIR of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and prevention of corruption act has been registered against Dr S K Jha, Chief Medical Officer in Kolkata, Dr Mrinal Hazarika, CMO in Jodhpur, Dr Bani Saikia Chetla, Specialist in Jalandhar, and five candidates; Vikram Singh Devthia, Gagan Sharma, Gurjeet Singh Juneja, Mukul Vyas and Karan Singh Koli,” the FIR states.

According to FIR, Devthia’s report said his weight during PST was 71.840 kg and within three days, his weight was 67 kg in RME, Koli’s weight during PST was 72.680 kg and his weight was 66 kg during RME, and Juneja’s weight was 70.880 kg and after three days, his weight was 66 kg.

The complainant Tiwari said in the FIR that Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) was designated as Nodal Force in 2021 by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for the recruitment of medical officers for CAPF through Medical Officer Selection Board (MOSB)-2021. “The recruitment test was conducted at various centres of CAPFs and one of the tests of 561 candidates was also conducted at Frontier HQ BSF in Jodhpur from March 2 to March 16 – from where this scam was reported. Additional DG (BSF) PV Rama Shastry, who was the chairman of the interview board, sent a letter to then DG (ITBP) Sanjay Arora on 10 March that five overweight candidates, who were found unfit by the Medical Examination Test Board, were, subsequently declared fit by RME with an unusual reduced weight,” Tiwari said.

“Shastry also informed Arora that the RME comprising three Medical Officers of BSF conducted the review medical examination test just after three days of the date of PST and recorded unrealistically reduced weight of five candidates than that of the weight recorded during the PST. Accordingly, a committee of three doctors was constituted for measurement of weight of these five candidates. A weight measurement of four candidates (with reduced weight by RME) was again taken after two days on 10 March on the respective weighing scale used in PST as well as RME and their weight tallied to be almost the same that was before RME. One of the candidates did not report. This suggests the fact that the weight of the five candidates were improperly recorded during RME and the RME was replaced by another board by ITBP for all candidates and rescheduled on March 21,” the FIR reads.