Arvind Gunasekar 
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation, on the complaint of Ministry of Defence, has registered a case against a sepoy housekeeper and craftsman of the Indian Army, for having allegedly set up a recruitment racket for posts in the “Indian Army, Territorial Army, Assam Rifles, Eastern Railways and FCI”.
The sepoy housekeeper Bablu Chauhan, craftsman Akash, one Chanchala Devi and others worked to trace and dupe aspiring candidates, the CBI said. While they did not give a single job, they made over a crore in money collected from aspiring candidates.
Akash, Chanchala and others would identify the candidates for recruitment and forward their details to Chauhan for recruitment in exchange for money, the enquiry by CBI has revealed.
‘Rs 7-8 lakh per candidate’
Non-existent jobs in the Territorial Army, Indian Army, Assam Rifles, Eastern Railways and FCI cost aspiring candidates exorbitant amounts of money.
“Sometimes, prices of Rs 7-8 lakh per candidate were negotiated amongst Chauhan, Akash, Chanchala and the aspiring candidates,” a CBI source said.
Chauhan himself also often approached candidates and made promises of jobs for similar amounts.
The money would be transferred to accounts belonging to Chauhan and his wife Ranjita.
“During enquiry, it was revealed that aggregate credits of approximately Rs 1.43 crores were received in accounts of Sepoy Bablu Chauhan and his wife Mrs. Ranjita Devi during the period January 2020 to August 2022,” the FIR registered by the CBI said.
‘Website and QR code’
The racket also sold non-existent positions in the Railways in lieu of bribes at the rate of Rs 9 lakhs for ‘Group D’ posts and Rs 10 lakhs for ‘Group C’ posts.
The CBI FIR says that Chauhan and his accomplices also created a fake website, ‘www.rrcb.com’, posing it as one under the Eastern Railways. They also printed false and forged Joining Letters for the posts of ticket checker and gateman. They also established an office at Fairlie Place near Babughat in Kolkata, from where joining letters were issued.
They even printed a QR code on the forged joining letters and when the candidates scanned the code on their mobiles, the fake website www.rrcb.com created by the accused displayed their appointment to the Railways, and showed their roll numbers as “selected” candidates.
The CBI source said, “The ‘selected candidates’ were then taken to the fake ‘Garia Training Institute’, for training.”
CBI’s enquiry revealed that no such institute was ever authorised by the Eastern Railways to impart training to its employees.
During this sham “training” too, candidates were shown the fake website and their selection to the posts. Forged identity cards were also issued and given to the candidates during this process.