The accused include the 34 candidates and 30 of them had joined training before the racket was discovered. (Representational Image)
The CBI has booked 40 people, including an Army official, for allegedly helping 34 ineligible candidates get recruitment in the Army. The accused include the 34 candidates and 30 of them had joined training before the racket was discovered. According to CBI, fraud was committed during a recruitment drive held by the Army’s Lucknow Headquarters in 2016-17.
The agency, which has also named a few middlemen, has alleged that the candidates submitted forged domicile certificates to be eligible for selection. While all of them were from Western Uttar Pradesh, they allegedly procured fake domicile certificates to show themselves as residents of Hamirpur district — residents of only Hamirpur and adjoining districts were eligible.
The candidates, in connivance with touts, middlemen and an official of the headquarters recruitment office in Lucknow, got selected for the posts of soldiers for technical, general, sentry, clerical and medical duty, the FIR said.
The FIR was lodged on April 19 following a complaint by CBI Inspector Pradeep Kumar Singh who was part of the investigations since December 12 last year when a preliminary enquiry was lodged.
The Army official named in the FIR is Girish NH Havaldar, who was found talking to two touts, identified as Praveen Tomar and Yogendra Kumar, and allegedly heard demanding a bribe during phone interceptions.