With the arrest of 13 accused, the Meerut team of the UP STF claimed to have busted a gang that facilitated the selection of candidates using fake certificates for gramin dak sevak posts in the Postal department arrested 13 individuals.
A case has been registered against the accused in Aligarh. Two postal superintendents and a driver are also believed to be involved in the gang.
A report has been sent to top officials in the government and the department for further action.
Giving details, ASP, STF, Brijesh Singh said that the Postal department had invited applications for approximately 45,000 gramin dak sevak positions (branch postmaster and assistant branch postmaster) across the country.
The recruitment notification was issued on July 15, 2024, and the merit list was released on August 23. Recruitment was conducted for 5,000 posts in Uttar Pradesh, and the work of document verification is currently ongoing.
Singh explained that during this recruitment process, a gang was active in helping candidates gain employment based on fake certificates. The gang was busted, resulting in the arrest of 13 individuals, including the kingpins — Sajid and Saqib.
Sajid, from Amroha, was responsible for creating fake documents and entering them into the online system, while Saqib, from Hapur, was tasked with bringing in candidates, he claimed.
Additionally, Vikal Yadav, a driver for the Mainpuri post superintendent, facilitated arrangements within the department. Sajid is known to have connections with Devendra Kumar (currently CPM, Jhansi), who was the post superintendent in 2023, and would often seek his assistance. Currently, Vikal also drives for post superintendent Sanjay Kumar Singh, who is stationed in Aligarh and is implicated in the gang’s activities, Singh added.
On Sajid’s instructions, Vikal arranged for the verification of each candidate with Sanjay Kumar Singh, who received an amount of Rs one lakh for each verification. The role of post superintendent Devendra is still under investigation, he said.
Meanwhile, Sajid and Saqib charged candidates between Rs 4 to 5 lakh each. The STF has recovered soft copies of documents from five to six universities that the gang had tampered with.
The recovered documents include marksheets from Subharti University (Meerut), Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University, the Bihar Sanskrit Education Board in Patna, and the West Bengal Council of Rabindra Open Schooling.
Those arrested have been identified as Sajid Ali from Amroha (main kingpin), Saqibfrom Hapur, Vikal Yadav from Mainpuri, Abhishek Chaudhary, Sumit Chaudhary, Praful, Hemant Kumar, Gaurav Chaudhary (all residents of Bijnor), Aham Mishra from of Mainpuri, Prashant Kumar from Sambhal, Hasim from Aligarh, Asif from Dasna (Ghaziabad), and Mohammad Sohail from Sambhal.
