27 booked for submitting ‘fake’ documents to get jobs in 2007
The Moga police have booked 27 persons for allegedly submitting “fake experience certificates” to get the teaching fellow jobs in the education department in 2007.
Following an investigation by a special investigation team (SIT) and recommendations of the Punjab Bureau of Investigation, a case has been registered under Sections 409 (breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Moga city police station.
According to the FIR, the Punjab education department started the process for recruitment of 9,998 ETT/JBT/teaching fellows in 2007 in 20 districts of the state.
“The recruitment of the teaching fellows were carried out at the district level under the chairmanship of district education officers (elementary). As there were up to seven marks for experience, candidates submitted bogus experience certificates in complicity with officials,” it read.
After the education department came across the irregularities in 2009, the list of candidates, whose experience certificates were found fake, was published in different newspapers.
They were asked to appear before a committee at Panjab University in Chandigarh. Following the report of committee, the instructions were issued to the districts to take action against the candidates who had submitted bogus certificates, the FIR mentioned.
The candidates had challenged it in the Punjab and Haryana high court, following which a three-member committee headed by the director of the education department was constituted. The candidates found with fake certificates were removed from the job. The committee found that 457 out of 563 candidates had provided fake experience certificates and recommended FIRs against them in 2010. The second committee was constituted in 2013 and upheld the previous committee’s report in 2014. During investigation, the vigilance team found that FIRs were registered against 91 such candidates but no FIR was lodged against 312 candidates who submitted bogus experience certificates, it stated.
It further mentioned that as per report of the education department, 10 candidates among the accused were reinstated on the directions of the high court, writ petitions of eight are pending in the court and nine candidates never made any attempt to get reinstated in the service. “A legal opinion was taken from the district attorney and the case was sent to the Punjab Bureau of Investigation seeking direction to take further course. It directed registration of FIRs against the accused,” it added.
In May last year, a team of the Punjab Vigilance Bureau had arrested five education officials for irregularities and misappropriation in the safekeeping of official records pertaining to the recruitment in 2007.
AS THERE WERE UP TO 7 MARKS FOR EXPERIENCE, CANDIDATES SUBMITTED BOGUS EXPERIENCE CERTIFICATES, SAYS THE FIR