Fraud in Army hiring; CBI registers case

Forty people, including a Havildar and middlemen, were booked by the CBI in connection with a case of subverting an Army recruitment drive in Uttar Pradesh to allow 34 men get jobs by submitting false documents of domicile.

The registration of the case comes after a preliminary enquiry by the CBI for the past five months after it was found that 34 people were recruited in the Army, reportedly on the basis of false and bogus documents showing them as residents of Hamirpur district in UP while they never resided there. The recruitment was for people from Hamirpur only.

The irregularities came to light after the Army unit dealing with recruitments in UP and Uttarakhand sent the documents for verification to the district administration, which intimated the Army that they have not issued any such certificates. It was also found that 31 of the fake certificates were also uploaded on the official website of the administration.

The education certificates filed by the candidates also showed that they never resided in Hamirpur district, according to the FIR.

During the investigation, the FIR said, it came to light that Hawildar Girish N H was reportedly in touch with two suspected middlemen through the phone to negotiate bribe money for delivery of dispatch order. The telephonic conversations were intercepted after obtaining five separate sanctions.

Bribe for job

This is the second case of irregularities in Army recruitment registered by the CBI in the past fortnight. In Hyderabad, DH reported on April 27, the CBI had registered a case following detection of fraud in the appointment of religious teachers in the Army. A bribe of at least Rs 15.55 lakh was paid by nine people, who managed to get the Army job in 2013.

In all, 17 people, including 12 Armymen, of whom nine were recruited as religious teachers, were named in the FIR.