New Delhi:
The fake caste certificate scam seems to have penetrated Delhi Police ranks as well. Recently, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directed the department to verify SC, ST and OBC certificates furnished by cops to get employment. A highly-placed police source said that on the instructions of the MHA, the department conducted a verification drive that several personnel, who have been working with Delhi Police for years, provided fake certificates to get their jobs.
"The first person who was caught was a head constable posted with vigilance branch. The accused was identified as head constable Ram Kishan Mehto. The vigilance department has held him guilty of furnishing a fake certificate of ST category," said a police source.
The source said that Ram Kishan Mehto got the Delhi Police job in 1995. According to the source it was the outer district DCP who first came to know about the discrepancy and asked the vigilance department to take action against him.
"During the verification drive, the DM of east Delhi was also asked by police to prepare a report on whether the ST certificate of Mehto was fake or not. On April 1, the DM replied to this. He made it clear that the document provided by Mehto was indeed fake. He added that he culprit does belong to an extremely backward class but he was not the member of ST category and no certificate was issued to him by the DM's office," said a police official.
The source also said that additional commissioner of police (vigilance) Garmia Bhatnagar wrote a letter to senior police officials asking them to take action against Mehto and book him in a criminal case.
"The instruction letter was sent by director (Delhi), government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs to all DCPs to conduct a verification drive. The head constable will be questioned to find out where he procured the fake certificate from," said a police source.