Police bust fake certificates racket; 4 govt employees held

With the arrest of four state government staff including a doctor from the Ayurvedic Medical department, Police here claimed to have busted a gang involved in providing jobs allegedly through fake certificates in Chhattisgarh.
"A clerk of Ayurvedic medical department Rajkumar Sharma, Ayurvedic doctor Pardeep Dewangan, peon Vinod Sahu and a mediator Pawan Yadav have been arrested on charges of providing job in the department through forgery," Korba Superintendent of Police Amresh Mishra said today.
A sum of Rs 17.36 lakh and fake certificates were recovered from their possession, the SP said.
Sharma, who was the mastermind of the gang, used to issue fake certificates, tamper with qualification certificates or enhance marks to show the ineligible persons to be fit for recruitment with the support of other gang members for which they recovered hefty cash from the aspirants, the SP said.

The forgery came to light recently when a youth named Tanuj reached the office of the department for joining as a peon with the appointment letter.
Suspecting the authenticity of his documents, the Ayurvedic medical officer approached police following which Tanuj was rounded up, he said.

Tanuj broke down during interrogation and based on his statements, the four were arrested yesterday, the SP said adding that one member of the gang is still at large.
Police also recovered cash and forged documents along with fake stamps during raids at their houses, he said.
The accused were booked under IPC's sections 420 (forgery), 467 (Forgery of valuable security) and 34 (common intention), he said.

Besides, Sharma has also been booked for sexually exploiting a woman before providing her a job based on her complaint, the SP said.
Further probe is underway in the cases, he added.