BENGALURU: The Special Enquiry Squad of Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested 48 people, including three government employees, in connection with a scam in the direct recruitment of second division assistants in the Water Resources Department (WRD).
The arrested include 37 candidates, who had submitted fake documents, and 11 middlemen.The Department had invited online applications to fill 182 backlog ‘C’ group posts in October 2022.
The middlemen had a network of creating counterfeit marks cards of class 12. The candidates who were not eligible as per the department criteria used the services of these middlemen. They obtained marks cards with good marks in all subjects as prescribed in the eligibility criteria.
Department officials filed a police complaint at the Central division on July 28, 2023 after finding 62 ineligible candidates applying for the vacancies by submitting fake Class 12 marks cards. The case was later handed over to Central Crime Branch.
The three arrested government employees are Anand, principal, Morarji Desai Residential PU College in Kalaburgi, Krishna Gurunath Rathod, First Division Assistant, Karnataka Power Corporation Limited, Jog in Shivamogga and Gangoor Pradeep, Second Division Assistant, Water Resources Department, Hassan. The 11 middlemen were arrested from Hassan, Mandya, Jewargi, Vijayapura, KGF, Bengaluru, Shivamogga and Tumakuru.
The middlemen reportedly created fake marks cards for II PUC, Class 12 of CBSE and NIOS. The counterfeit mark cards were submitted online, robbing genuine candidates of their opportunity.
In all, 62 candidates from 12 districts submitted fake marks cards, of whom 25 were from Kalaburagi, 12 from Hassan, six from Belagavi, three each from Yadgir, Vijayapura and Bidar, two from Chitradurga district, and one each from Ramanagara, Koppal, Kolar, Raichur and Vijayanagar districts.
“Search is on for the remaining candidates as only 37 of them have been arrested. 17 mobile phones, a computer hard disk and other valuables worth Rs 40 lakh were recovered,” said an officer.