RANCHI, April 21: An inter-state gang is reported to be involved in the fake recruitment of constables for the Border Security Force. A week ago, 17 youths, suspected to be part of this clandestine operation, were arrested in Hazaribagh while they were undergoing training in the BSF training centre and fake appointment letters recovered from them.The Police are not ruling out a possibility of the connivance of some officials and employees of the BSFTC (Hazaribagh) and BSF Staff Selection Commission (West bengal).The gang operating from Bihar and West Bengal appeared to be engaged in the fake recruitment of constables, P V Sahdevan, DIG of Border Security Force (BSF) said in a press conference at Hazaribagh on Monday.BSF has well laid out rules with regard to recruitment of its constables. As per these rules, BSF's staff selection board brings out advertisements in newspapers. After physical verification and various tests, the selected applicants are issued with the appointment letters and dispatchedfor training at its training centre.On April 13, the Hazaribagh-based BSF Training Centre (BSFTC), acting on a tip off, found that 17 trainee constables - 16 from Nadia district and one from Burdwan district in West Bengal - had been undergoing training at the centre with fabricated appointment letters issued on letter-heads of the Commandant, D/pass Section, Darjeeling.Next day, BSFTC commandant filed an FIR with the Hazaribagh Muffasil police station against 20 persons, including the 17 bogus constables. They were booked under Sections 420, 467, and 471 of the Indian Panel Code.Investigation by the BSF authorities revealed that a person called Badal Sarkar had induced these youths to pay Rs 40,000 each to join as a constable in the para-military force. After they paid the money, Sarkar provided them with call letters, appointment letters etc and brought them to the Hazaribagh BSFTC on a hired bus on April 6, which was the due date for reporting as per their `documents'.Strangely, withoutchecking or verifying the bona fides of the appointment letters, the BSFTC officials admitted them at the training centre and allotted them uniforms and beds. Even mess cards were issued to them after each one of them deposited Rs 600 as the requisite mess security deposit."This could happen because the procedure adopted and documents furnished by them tallied with our original procedure and documents," a senior BSF officer explained to The Indian Express.The BSF panel, headed by a probationer IPS officer, Anil Kumar Yadav, constituted to investigate the case is scheduled to visit Nadia and Burdwan this weekend to locate Badal and other members of his gang.
