The district administration has busted an interState gang which arranged for fake examinees in place of original candidates in the Indian Rserve Bttalion (IRB) competitive exams held on Sunday in the State. Till the time of filing of this report, five arrests were made including the alleged kingpin of this gang who is a constable in the excise department in Bihar.
Sharing the information with local newsmen at Bara Bazar TOP on Sunday late evening, Hazaribagh Sadar SDO Aditya Ranjan said that during the exam on Sunday he visited Vivekanand school center, where the identification work of examinees was going on. When the fingerprint of an examinee mismatched and was reported to him he started cross verifying the admit cards of every examinee with their Id-cards. Three youths were taken in custody taking the examination in place of original examinees.
When these youths were interrogated they accepted that they had been promised Rs 3,000 to appear in the exam in place of the original candidate. The gang members not only changed the photographs of the original examinees but also arranged fake papers for them to prove themselves as the original candidates.
Later, as per their information, another youth was taken into custody when he came back to Hazaribagh after appearing for a candidate at a center in Ranchi. The youths said that an officer of excise department posted in Bihar is the kingpin of this gang and is operating here with the help of his brother.
After this information, SDO and local police officials started framing a trap to catch the kingpin. The kingpin was contacted and it was said that his gang members were in custody, and asked to come to Hazaribagh and deal with the matter. The kingpin, who is a constable in excise department posted in Bihar, fell in this trap and came Hazaribagh on Monday noon and the he was taken into custody. Till the time of filing of this report, interrogation of the kingpin was going on and it has became clear that this gang was operating mainly from Bihar for last more than 2 years. Its modus operandi was to arrange fake examinees in place of originals for which the gang members used to take Rs 3-6 lakhs from every candidate.
A special investigation team has been constituted to enquire the matter thoroughly and to nab all the members of this gang. It is hoped that some arrests from Hazaribagh and other towns of Jharkhand and Bihar will be made soon.