Pune/T’puram: Military Intelligence (MI) officers in Thiruvananthapuram foiled the attempt of six youths from Uttar Pradesh to get recruited into the Army by using fake Aadhaar cards and domicile certificates.
The recruitment rally was restricted to candidates from six Kerala districts. The six youths were arrested on Saturday night and handed over to the Poojappura police.
They have been identified as Sailendra Singh (21), Ankit Bhati (22), Manish Kumar (20), Vishnu Kumar (19), Vipin Kumar (18), and Chetan Prakash Solanki (20). All hail from same neighbourhood and knew each other. They were charged under Sections 120(b), 465, 468, 471 and 420 of IPC. They will be produced before the court on Monday.
Officers from the Pune-headquartered Army Southern Command liaison unit said the recruitment rally organized by the Army Recruiting Office (ARO) at Kolachal stadium of the Pangode military station was meant for candidates from Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Idukki, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts.
An officer said, “As per the rules, the candidate should be a resident of Kerala or must have completed basic education in the state to qualify for the rally held for the posts of soldier general duty, soldier (clerk/stores keeper), soldier technical and soldier tradesmen. The Army had received a record 31,000 online applications for the rally.”
The Pune-headquartered Army Southern Command liaison unit controls the MI units, including the one in Thiruvananthapuram.
An MI officer told TOI that six of the nine candidates, who had enrolled themselves online, cleared the physical test at the recruitment rally. He said, “Before they could appear for the medical and written tests, their documents were verified and we found that they had altered their addresses on Aadhaar cards and could not converse in Malayalam.”
The MI authorities first detained two of the youths on Saturday. The documents furnished by them revealed that they had completed their basic education in Uttar Pradesh. The addresses on the Aadhaar cards, however, were of Kollam district. The domicile certificates they furnished also had Kollam addresses. These discrepancies made the recruitment officials suspicious about them.
During questioning, the two youths said they were part of a nine-member group and had registered online for the rally with fake certificates. Of them, six had cleared the physical test. The remaining four candidates were later held from the recruitment venue. By Saturday night, all six were handed over to the Poojappura police.
The MI officer said, “Questioning of the six youths revealed that they are from Bulandshahar district of Uttar Pradesh. The candidates said that one Ajay Kumar from Uttar Pradesh had taken Rs 2 lakh from them to create their fake addresses.”
Sources said the six candidates hail from poor families in Bulandshahar. “One of the candidate’s father is serving the Border Security Force,” a source said, adding that nine of them had come to Thiruvananthapuram on April 19 and were staying in a private lodge close to the Central railway station.
The candidates who could not clear the physical test left Kerala two days ago. “We suspect that the applicants had local support, as their addresses are of the same locality in Kollam district,” a source said.
Cantonment assistant commissioner Suneesh Babu said they needed to check whether the youths indeed hailed from UP. “The youths told us that they had received the fake certificates through an agent in UP. A probe is on to identify and arrest him,” he said.