LUCKNOW: The fascination for luxury sports car Lamborghini and the dream to own one by hook or crook has landed a 19-year-old engineering student behind the bars.
The teen techie hailing from Saran district of Bihar was caught impersonating for a candidate in interview for group D job in railways in Prayagraj on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Manishek Kumar of Aami village, was caught by Atul Mishra, chairperson of railway recruitment cell, Prayagraj.
According to railway officials, the accused was caught after he correctly solved difficult mathematical equations within seconds and that too in fluent English, triggering suspicion.
“The accused with a beard, wearing branded clothes had claimed that he hails from a poor family and had studied in Hindi medium. In order to confirm our suspicion, we cross checked the biometrics and photo of the candidate Ayushman Aman given in December 2019 for physical efficiency test (PET) and found the person appearing in the interview before us was different,” said Mishra.
“The accused had appeared for Ayushman Aman in the written exam as well and had taken Rs 7.50 lakh for it,” he said, adding, “Though in questioning later he claimed to have taken only Rs 26,000.”
During the probe, railway officials found that the second year engineering student had a fascination for Lamborghini and had been impersonating candidates in entrance exams for professional courses and jobs to collect the money to buy one.
“In a WhatsApp chat retrieved from his mobile phone, the accused had even communicated his wish to buy a Lamborghini with his handler, saying he is collecting money for it by charging for impersonation,” added Mishra.
The probe also revealed that the accused had earlier cleared NEET for another candidate.
Railways had conducted a computer based test for group D job in 2018, following which a PET was conducted in 2019.
The candidates were called for an interview after Covid-19 lockdown ended. At each stage, biometrics and photos of candidates were matched, but in this case the real candidate Ayushman Aman appeared only for PET and he and the impersonator Manishek somehow managed to dodge scrutiny till the latter appeared in the interview and was caught.
The accused was booked under Sections 419, 420, 467,468 and 471 of IPC. He was sent to jail on Thursday.
According to railway officials, 67 candidates had been called for interview out of which 15 were absent.