Two arrested in sports quota job fraud

Jaipur: The Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan police Tuesday arrested two persons, accused of arranging forged Taekwondo certificates and fake verification reports that were allegedly used by candidates to secure govt jobs under the sports quota.

The accused, identified as Kaptaan Singh alias Gurjar Kaptaan Singh (22) of Karauli and Vishnu Bhakhariwal (25) of Jaipur, were remanded in two days of police custody Wednesday. SOG officials said Kaptaan Singh had been absconding for nearly two years and carried a reward tag of Rs 10,000 on him.

The case is linked to the Grade III Teacher Recruitment Examination, 2021-22. During the investigation, SOG found that a fake email ID was allegedly created in the name of the Taekwondo Federation of India, Dhanbad, and forged verification reports were sent to the appointment branch of the Directorate of Elementary Education, Bikaner, to validate fake sports certificates.

According to SOG, the candidates used forged certificates and verification reports to claim benefits under the sports quota and secure govt jobs.

The probe found that Manoj Kumar Gurjar, Hemlata Gurjar and Siyaram Gurjar had allegedly obtained forged certificates purportedly issued for the Bhagwan Mahavir Open National Taekwondo Championship, 2017. Based on these documents, they secured appointments as third-grade teachers. All three were arrested earlier in the case.

During questioning, the arrested candidates allegedly told investigators that they had procured the fake certificates through Kaptaan Singh by paying Rs 40,000 each.

According to SOG, Kaptaan Singh and Vishnu became friends while preparing for armed forces recruitment in 2020 and later began arranging forged sports credentials for candidates.

According to the investigators, Vishnu allegedly sourced the fake certificates, while Kaptaan Singh supplied them to job aspirants. Officials said Kaptaan Singh purchased the certificates for around Rs 60,000 each and sold them for up to Rs 1.20 lakh, earning substantial profits from the racket.

Further investigation is underway to identify other beneficiaries and those involved in preparing and verifying the forged documents.