As it appeared that Shelke and Pawar are the masterminds in the case, a team was subsequently sent to Aurangabad range. The Bhoiwada police on Tuesday made their 11th arrest in the police recruitment scam in which the accused allegedly tried to cheat the Mumbai police by sending dummy candidates during their recruitment drive. The arrested person has been identified as Ganesh Pawar (28). During the course of police investigation, an Aurangabad-based coaching institute emerged as a prime conspirator in the case. Pawar worked as an instructor at that institute. The Bhoiwada police has, so far, registered eight FIRs against 16 people, including eight police aspirants and as many dummy persons who represented them in the physical tests.
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), along with three other dummy candidates have been arrested. Deputy Commissioner of police Vijay Patil (zone IV) said, “This is the 11th arrest and we have learnt that Pawar represented three candidates in the ongoing recruitment drive for which he was supposed to get Rs 3 lakh.” The police further added that he worked at the behest of Ravi Shelke, who was running the institute in which Pawar worked as a physical training instructor.
“The group would help the aspirants seeking training at their institute. They would especially help out those who they felt would not score enough marks in their physical training to get selected. Subsequently, Pawar represented them in the physical examinations and helped them by scoring at least 49 marks out of 50,” said an officer.
As it appeared that Shelke and Pawar are the masterminds in the case, a team was subsequently sent to Aurangabad range. The team found out that Shelke died after succumbing to his injuries after meeting with an accident in Beed district in December 2021.
“Meanwhile, we learnt that Pawar was in Mumbai after which we laid a trap and arrested him from Parel area,” said Patil. The police also said that the dummy candidates were yet to receive payments from the aspirants because as per the deal, they were to get the money only after the latter got recruited in the Mumbai police department.
How the scam came to light
Explaining the process, a senior IPS officer said the written examination for the sanctioned post of 1,076 police constables was conducted on November 14, 2021 at different centers in Mumbai. More than one lakh aspirants had applied for the exam and appeared for it. Subsequently, between December 6 and December 15, 2021, physical tests were conducted.
“As per the instructions from the DG office, this year we planned that before the physical and written examination, videography of every candidate will be done so that we can cross-check at the end before hiring them. And when these 1,076 candidates were shortlisted, they were called for a medical test before which we matched the candidate with the videos shot before physical and written examination. During this process, the instances of cheating came to light,” said an officer.
The 11 accused have been booked under sections 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code along with sections 7 and 8 of Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University, Board and other Specified Examinations Act, 1982.
“We are trying to verify whether Pawar has represented more aspirants in the past or at any other district’s recruitment drive,” said Patil.
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