Five held for army recruitment scam

Punjab police Saturday claimed to have busted an Army recruitment racket with the arrest of five people.

Rupnagar Senior Superintendent of Police Swapan Sharma said the police also recovered 29 Aadhaar cards, fake documents and Rs8 lakh cash from the possession of arrested persons.

Besides, 68 fake stamps of officials like SHOs, tehsildars, municipal councillors were found, he said.

In the last five years, the gang managed to secure recruitment of 26 individuals in the Sikh and J&K regiments by preparing fake caste and residential certificates, the SSP said.

Sharma said the accused used to charge Rs 3 to 5 lakh from every individual for the recruitment.

The SSP suspected involvement of some clerks of the Army recruitment centres in Patiala, Ferozpur and Ludhiana in the racket.

The scam was detected when the accused came to a police station for verification of documents, he added.

Initial investigations revealed that Yogesh of Salem Tabri, Ludhiana was the kingpin of this gang, which in last five years prepared fake documents of nearly 150 individuals hailing from Haryana, the police officer said.

Yogesh is son of an ex-serviceman, he said, adding that two other accused, Manjeet and Sunil of Jind, who ran an Army recruitment training academy there, used to trick aspirants from their state for recruitment in the Army.

Similarly, Manoj and Amit of Ferozpur used to send aspiring recruits to Yogesh from the districts of Fazilka, Moga, Faridkot and Ferozpur in Punjab.