Army officers booked for recruitment scam

False experience certificates issued to ineligible candidates

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered two cases against three officials of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, for alleged cheating, corruption and irregularities in the recruitment process.

Lieutenant Colonels Akhilesh Mishra, Jagdish Bishnoi and Ambarish Tiwari have been accused of issuing fake experience certificates to candidates while recruiting them as group C and group D employee of the prestigious military institute in 2011-2012, CBI officials said in Delhi.

The agency was probing allegations of irregularities committed by the Army officers in the recruitment of 59 Group ‘C’ and 227 Group ‘D’ employees.

After getting prima facie material to proceed, the agency has registered two cases against Mishra and Bishnoi, then catering officers (both posted at IMA) and Tiwari, then administrative officer at Rashtriya Indian Military College, along with unidentified members of the selection board.

“It was alleged that candidates who did not fulfil the minimum eligibility criteria were recruited on the basis of false experience certificates and forged documents, and answer sheets of certain candidates were found to have not been written by them,” a CBI spokesperson said.

The agency has registered cases under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and for forgery and alleged criminal conspiracy to cheat.
A senior Army officer told Deccan Herald that the Army, too, wll initiate action against the tainted trio once it formally receives the documents from the probe agency.

Even though 34 candidates are suspected to have been selected on the basis of forged documents, the CBI has named only 21 such in the FIR saying the rest were being identified and would be mentioned in the charge sheet.

“This enquiry was registered on the allegations that irregularities were committed by the officers of IMA during the process of recruitment of 59 Group ‘C’ and 227 Group ‘D’ category employees," the CBI spokesperson said.

Fake documents

An Indian Military Academy  spokesperson said documents and experience certificates issued to a large number of 

IMA employees were found fake during the authentication process of the academy, which subsequently informed the CBI.

The new recruitment scam comes within an year of another recruitment scam at the National Defence Academy, Pune, involving senior Army officers. The CBI arrested NDA Commandant Lt Gen Jatinder Singh’s Staff Officer Colonel Kulbir Singh and five others for allegedly receiving bribe from candidates during a recruitment drive.

Lt Gen Singh was subsequently removed by Defence Minister A K Antony to ensure a fair investigation in the scam. NDA Establishment Officer S S Waghmare was also arrested by the CBI on the charge of accepting money from at least 15 candidates in the scam.

The CBI claimed Col Singh in conspiracy with the other accused had obtained illegal gratification of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh from each candidate to give them appointment as cooks, gardeners, lab attendants, library attendants and cadet orderlies.