The Hindu : Probe initiated into Army recruitment scam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 06, 2003

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Probe initiated into Army recruitment scam

By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI OCT. 5. Nearly two months after a racket in recruitment in the Army on the basis of forged documents was unearthed, the Military Intelligence is understood to have initiated a probe into the antecedents of new recruits to ascertain whether some Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals have infiltrated the armed forces.

According to sources, some MI officials contacted the Delhi police in August to gather information on the backgrounds of those recruited through the racket being run by the former Army Medical Corps Naik, Ram Sewak, under the garb of a physical training institute at Palam Colony in South-West Delhi. They also interrogated him to know about his contacts in the Army.

The MI took the matter seriously as they already had some inputs suggesting that quite a few Bangladeshi nationals had got into the Army on forged documents. During interrogation, Ram Sewak disclosed that he had helped hundreds of aspirants to get into the armed forces on the basis of forged domicile certificates and caste/character certificates. They included people from Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and some other States.

The MI suspects that some of the candidates inducted in the Army claiming to be from Orissa could be Bangladeshi nationals. Officials said through Ram Sewak, the applicants had obtained documents like ration cards, showing them as Indian citizens. This apart, a probe is on to check the antecedents of candidates who had presented themselves as residents of Uttar Pradesh. There is a suspicion that a few of them are Pakistani nationals, who might be indulging in spying activity.

It is learnt that on the inputs provided by the Delhi police, the MI has alerted the officials in the Army recruitment centres at Meerut, Varanasi, Roorkee and Ranikhet to trace the personnel who were helping Ram Sewak and another former Army man, Phool Singh, who had taught Ram Sewak the modus-operandi. Phool Singh had been running such a racket from Uttam Nagar in West Delhi.

Sources said several officials in the government services have been found involved in helping Ram Sewak and his accomplice, Jitender, in obtaining forged documents.

One among them, a Deputy Director with the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs, Suresh Chandra, was arrested along with Jitender this past Wednesday, while another person, Sant Singh, was arrested from Tilak Nagar on Thursday for allegedly supplying forged stamps of gazetted officers to Ram Sewak. He charged Rs. 400 per stamp. Over 100 such stamps have been seized so far. Meanwhile, raids are on to nab other members of the gang.

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