CBI busts PO exam racket

Patna,(BiharTimes): The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday busted an inter-state gang said to be involved in an racket of getting job-aspirants appointed as Probationary Officers (POs) and clerks in nationalized banks.

A husband-wife duo––Sanjeev Kumar and Alisha Verma––of Nalanda, a district which has acquired notoriety for many such job rackets, is said to be the kingpin of the gang. Besides, Alisha’s cousin Rajesh Kumar and Kishlaya Kumar, all from the district, were part of the gang. It is said that Alisha also got the PO job through this racket. She is at present posted as a PO in a UCO bank branch in Biharsharif. While she has been arrested, her husband, Sanjeev Kumar, a peon working with the block education resource centre in Ekangarsarai in Nalanda district is still at large.

Acting on a tip-off, the CBI sleuths carried out simultaneous raids in Nalanda, Patna, Noida and on Sunday arrested Rohan Kumar, who was to appear at a bank exam for another candidate.

Rohan, who was a dummy to write an online bank recruitment examination to be conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), was arrested from Noida while Alisha from Nalanda.

According to V K Singh, DIG (CBI) the network of the gang is spread all over of the country, especially in Nasik, Noida and Greater Noida. They would charge between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 18 lakh from each candidate for recruitment as POs and Rs seven lakh for clerks. Dummy candidates were provided with air tickets to fly to the exam centres in different parts of the country.

V K Singh said the gang members scanned and edited or morphed the photographs of dummy candidates in such a way that it `was difficult to detect the impersonator who also used to carry fake ID cards.

Meanwhile, the special CBI court in Patna on Monday remanded Alisha and Rohan in judicial custody for two weeks. Another member of the racket — Rajesh Kumar of Nalanda — has been detained for interrogation.

The raiding CBI team seized incriminating documents, including marksheets, certificates, admit cards and photo identity cards of several candidates, from a rented house of Sanjeev at Sandalpur in Patna.
The ancestral house of Sanjeev at Telhara in Nalanda district was also searched.