IRS officer cons his way to clear UPSC

Clearing the Civil Service examination is a dream for many but an “over-aged” youth from Bihar’s West Champaran district found an innovative way to outfox the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to circumvent the age ceiling set for appearing in the multi-level tests using identity of another person who is five years junior to him.

Hold your breath, he managed to clear the exam in order to enter the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) in 2008.

Now, the law has caught Rajesh Kumar Sharma, who allegedly used the identity of one Navneet Kumar to appear for the exam and remains in the service (11 years ) in the name of the junior. The CBI is now registering a case against him.

Presently, Sharma is posted as deputy commissioner in the office of the commissioner, CGST and Central Excise (East Zone), Kolkata. It appears that what undid his suspected impersonation was giving his father’s name and the same address as the identity of Kumar. He had allegedly provided certificates claiming that Kumar passed Class X in 1996, Class XII in 2003, BA (Honours) in 2008 from Muzaffarpur and his date of birth as June 6, 1980. It came out during the investigations that one Rajesh Kumar Sharma is in this same address and this person studied in Navodaya Vidyalaya in Bettiah from where he passed in 1991 and Class XII in 1993.

According to the FIR, when Sharma “got over-aged for the UPSC exam, he changed his identity and obtained certificates in the name of Navneet Kumar, keeping the father’s name and address the same”.

Certificates issued by Deputy Electoral Officer in West Champaran and statements of the village head, the former village head and other residents indicated that Navneet Kumar was a “later adopted identity of Rajesh Kumar Sharma.”

Sharma also allegedly submitted his provisional degree certificate dated December 17, 2008, which indicated that he appeared for the BA exams in December 2007. The FIR said it was “clear” that he had done “some manipulation” to appear for the exam. “During the verification, it has learnt that he has not submitted any Date of Birth certificate and certificate of the intermediate exam passed by him in 2003 to the department so far. It also emerged that Bihar Vidyalaya Pariksha Samiti has not cooperated in providing the required details of Navneet,” it said.

“It is prima facie criminal act of use of forged documents as genuine, change of identity for cheating in conspiracy with unknown public servants who might have helped in the act getting government job by assuming a new identity to overcome restraint of being overage and against unknown private persons,” it added.