Impersonation, fraud for central jobs: Cops arrest Railway staff, teacher from Uttar Pradesh

CHENNAI: Throwing a spanner in the works of a well-oiled exam fraud machinery, Chennai police arrested three persons — all government employees; two Railway staff and a teacher — from Uttar Pradesh for allegedly facilitating impersonation of candidates in written exams for jobs at the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) at Taramani, a centrally funded technical institution here.

Of the selected candidates, six had put in over one year of service at NITTR as ‘multitasking staff’, a role for which they were employed, but their continued underperformance raised suspicions after which the institute itself conducted internal investigations and based on credible evidence that the staff might have cheated their way into the job, approached the Chennai police in June this year.

The Central Crime Branch (CCB), which took over investigations in the case, first arrested the six ‘multitasking staff’ — Kajal of Haryana, Sakun Kumar of Bihar, Tinkoo, Prem Singh, Ankith Kumar, and Jitu Yadav from Uttar Pradesh — in July for fraud.

“Their roles involved comprehension of basic English and usage of computers. But the candidates did not have basic knowledge," a police officer said.

After quizzing the six accused, Chennai police set out to arrest the masterminds. Three teams headed by Inspectors Sumathi, Kamal Mohan, and Gokula Krishnan were sent to Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, where they camped and arrested the three government employees from different locations.

A team led by Inspector Sumathi, probing the fraudulent employment of Bihar's Sakun Kumar, was led to the suspect, Jaishankar Prasad (34), who engineered the fraud.

The police team secured Jaishankar Prasad, who has been employed as a Junior Engineer (signal and telecommunications) at Chopan railway station in Uttar Pradesh for the last four years. Inspector Gokula Krishnan-led team travelled to Firozabad near Agra on the trail of the accused who facilitated the fraudulent employment of Tinkoo, and after investigations, arrested Arvind Kumar (30), working as chief commercial-cum-ticket supervisor at Bulandshahr railway station for the last one and a half years.

At Madanpur village in Firozabad district of UP, a city police team led by Inspector Kamal Mohan arrested another accused, Dharmendar Kumar (32), a serial offender. Police said he has been employed as a Hindi teacher at a primary school in the village for the last four years.

"It (exam fraud) is a cottage industry in these areas. In this case, the aspirants paid Rs 3.5 lakh each to these masterminds. One even has his whole family involved in the fraud. The accused look out for job notifications on government websites and newspapers and take care of online applications and other aspects up to impersonation," a senior police officer told DT Next.

After obtaining transit warrants, the accused were brought to the city and were remanded in judicial custody here. Further investigation is under way to find others involved in the racket.