The police officials further revealed that 42 other police aspirants who were shortlisted for the post in the Mumbai police force are under the scanner. (Representative Image) An Aurangabad-based coaching institute has emerged as the prime conspirator behind an organised racket which would help people clear police recruitment exams by sending dummy candidates. A total of eight FIRs have been filed so far in which dummy candidates were sent to take the Mumbai Police recruitment tests.
The investigations have revealed that one person, who works as a teacher in the institute, has represented atleast three dummy candidates and scored 49 marks out of 50 in their physical tests for which he took Rs 3 lakhs.
Within the span of the last 15 days, eight such FIRs have been registered against 16 people which includes eight police aspirants and eight dummy persons who represented them in the physical tests. So far eight police aspirants identified as Balanath Pawar (30), Satish More (22), Bhagwan Takle (24), Vikas Salunkhe (28), Kundalik Shinde (25), Pravin Shinde (32) , Dyaneshwar Ghodke (24) and Akash Kavhale (23) and two other dummy candidates have been arrested.
Joint Commissioner of police Rajkumar Vhatkar said, “One person identified as Ganesh Pawar, who is wanted in multiple cases and works as a teacher in one of the coaching classes in Aurangabad has represented three such police aspirants. We were informed that the aspirants have paid him Rs 3 lakhs in return for the help in clearing the physical test.”
The police said that the three candidates met Pawar in a coaching class in Aurangabad and they are investigating the role of the institute in the scandal.
“And others in the coaching institute were supposed to teach them which will help in clearing their examinations, however as some aspirants could only score 41 or 42 marks, which is not good enough to get recruited, so Pawar appeared on their behalf,” added Vhatkar.
Explaining the process of recruitment, a senior IPS officer said the written examination for the sanctioned post of 1076 police constables was conducted on 14 November 2021 at different centers in Mumbai and more than a lakh police aspirants had applied and appeared for it. Subsequently, between 6 December and 15th December 2021, the physical tests were conducted.
“Before both, physical and written examination, videography of every candidate was done so that we can cross-check before hiring them. And when these 1076 candidates were shortlisted, they were called for a medical test before which we verify the candidate with the videos shot before physical and written examination during which such instances of cheating came to light,” said an officer.
And during the course of the interrogation, the eight were handed over to the police station following which cases were registered against them and subsequently arrested.
Senior police inspector Jitendra Vishnu Pawar of Bhoiwada police station said, “All of them have confessed to the crime and revealed the names of the dummy candidate. Pawar, who has appeared for multiple candidates during the recruitment drive is still wanted.”
The police officials further revealed that 42 other police aspirants who were shortlisted for the post in the Mumbai police force are under the scanner.
“These 42 candidates were selected and we had called them for routine medical tests, which we do before hiring, but we believe that they have purposely not turned up for this as they are scared of getting caught,” said Vhatkar.
The investigators also added that they will further check whether these dummy candidates have appeared for other aspirants in another district’s police recruitment drive.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
