PHULBANI/BHAWANIPATNA: Footprints of the fake certificate racket busted in Balangir postal division are found in other districts as cases have now been detected in Kalahandi and Kandhamal.
Superintendent of Phulbani postal division Debi Prasad Nayak lodged an FIR against six candidates on Monday alleging they tried to land jobs by producing fake certificates.
For 85 posts of branch postmaster, assistant branch postmaster and dak sevak, 57 candidates were shortlisted in Kandhamal. During document verification, discrepancies were found in the certificates of six candidates. Five certificates were from Allahabad board and one from National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Noida.
Suspecting them to be fake, Nayak lodged an FIR against the six. Town Police IIC Ashok Kumar Giri said investigation is underway. Similarly, Kalahandi postal division had sought application for 113 vacancies for the posts of branch post master, assistant branch post master and dak sevak for recruitment in Kalahandi and Nuapada districts.
After receiving applications, around 105 candidates were short-listed for document verification at Bhawanipatna post office and another eight asked to verify their documents in other divisions as per their choice. The document verification process was conducted from March 16 to 26 but out of the 105 candidates, only 78 appeared on the scheduled dates.
Superintendent of Kalahandi postal division Bijay Kumar Mohanty said absence of so many candidates from the verification process has raised suspicion. “However, unless reports are received from respective boards which issued these candidates certificates, nothing concrete can be said. The documents submitted by the 78 candidates were issued from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha,” he said adding those who appeared for verification have also received marks ranging from 96-98 per cent which makes it very suspicious.
This, however, is not the only instance. One Tikeswari Nial, postmaster of Patrapur branch under Jaipatna block, was terminated from service on January 23 this year for allegedly securing job by submitting fake board certificates issued from BSE, Odisha.