Alok Mishra
Patna: With the arrest of five persons, Patna Police on Saturday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang involved in providing jobs through setting in Indian Army and other government services departments. Police also recovered a fake identity card of Indian Army, Rs 3.48 lakh cash, an Scorpio, one Honda City car, 17 ATM cards, two sim cards, a cheuqe of Rs. 1 lakh of Axis Bank and admit cards of BSSC and other documents from the possession of the arrested persons, said Patna Senior SP (SSP) Mannu Maharaaj here.
The SSP had been receiving inputs that a professional gang involved in setting in recruitment tests of central and state government is active in the state capital. The gang members used to fleece huge cash from the candidates for appointment in Indian Army. Patna SSP constituted a police team led by City SP (West) to bust the gang. Police team also included SDPO, Danapur, SHOs of Danapur and Sahpur police stations besides members of the Technical Cell. Since the issue was related to Indian Army, SSP, Patna, was himself monitoring the case. The team started collecting information about the gang and came to know the gang has also spread its network in other states.
The team members in civies contacted the members of the gang and came to know that the kingpin of the gang is Munna Singh who has appointed his agents in all the districts to trap and fleece huge cash from rural unemployed youth wanting jobs in Indian Army. They came to know that some agents of Munna Singh were planning to assemble at a place to hand over cash to the kingpin. Some police team members reached Shivala Mor and arrested five members of the gang later identified as Munna Singh, Rahul Kumar, Satish Kumar, Nitish Kumar Singh and Vicky Kumar. Police recovered Rs 3.52 lakh cash, 16 ATM cards besides some documents from the possession of the arrested persons.
During interrogation, Munna Singh revealed that he was involved in this racket since 2004 and a case had been registered against him in Chhapra (Saran) in 2004 related to fraudulent appointment in Indian Army. Police said that Col. Vikram Singh Godhara, Appointment Director, Army Bharti Karyalaya, Muzaffarpur, had also lodged a complaint against him with Kaji Mohammadpur police station, Muzaffarpur, in which the complainant had alleged that Singh had threatened to kidnap and eliminate him if he did not cooperate in appointment in the Indian Army.
Munna further told the police that two havildar rank officers, who are currently posted as clerks in Army Bharti Board in Danapur Cantt, Patna, are paid Rs 1 lakh each candidate for providing questions of medical and written examinations and these papers are either distributed through agents or uploaded on WhatsApp. One of the arrested persons Satish Kumar was in Army dress when he was arrested and police recovered an ID card of retired Army personnel from his possession. Though during interrogation, he tried to outsmart the cops, but later admitted that he had procured the fake ID card to win over the candidates.
Rahul Kumar said that he was associated with Munna Singh for the past several years. He revealed that he had met one Nitish Kumar Singh in Patna who had demanded Rs 6 lakh cash each for providing total question papers of Inter level examinations of Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) scheduled for January 29. Later, a police team arrested Nitish Kumar Singh, who during interrogation revealed that he is a native of Rohtas and said that he was to receive question papers from one Guru ji.