- The Rajasthan Police SOG arrested 20 people for fake Taekwondo certificates in teacher recruitment
- Nineteen candidates secured jobs under the athlete quota using forged certificates and emails
- Fake emails were created from Dubai by Vimalendu Kumar Jha, not linked to the Taekwondo Federation
The Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police has arrested 20 people including 19 candidates who secured employment under the "Outstanding Athlete" quota in the third-grade teachers recruitment-2022 using fake Taekwondo certificates and verification reports.
Twenty accused, including 19 candidates, were detained across 14 districts of Rajasthan and one location in Haryana on Thursday. They were brought to the SOG office in Jaipur and placed under arrest, Additional Director General of Police (SOG) Vishal Bansal said, adding that raids were conducted on Thursday following which the accused were arrested.
Investigation revealed that screenshots of emails, allegedly sent by the Taekwondo Federation, were used to provide verification reports of 39 candidates' sports certificates to the Education Department.
On close examination, officials noticed an error in the spelling of 'Secretary' in the email which raised suspicion about its authenticity.
Further inquiry showed that the email was created from Dubai and operated by one Vimalendu Kumar Jha, who was not listed as an office-bearer or member of the Taekwondo Federation of India.
Earlier, Jha and his associate Ravi Sharma were arrested and the SIM card used to create the fake email was recovered.
The SOG investigation revealed that the accused had prepared a fake email ID resembling the federation's official email. Using this, they sent positive verification reports of fake Taekwondo certificates to the Directorate of Primary Education to secure jobs for the candidates under the athlete quota.
Bansal said that the accused were arrested from multiple districts, including Phalodi, Jodhpur, Jalore, Bikaner, Hanumangarh, Sri Ganganagar, Bhilwara, Jaipur Rural, Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Nagaur.
The arrested accused are Babita Jakhar, Jyotiraditya, Seema, Kavita Bhinchar, Basanti Kumhar, Mamta Kumari, Narendra Bidyasar, Mumtaz, Bhanwarlal, Kavita, Ekta Thalor, Yogendra Kumar, Shivkaran, Mangilal, Bhalaram, Bhajanlal, Sunil Paliwal, Mahendra Paliwal, Durgaprasad and Gajanand Prajapat.
Investigation also revealed the role of some brokers who provided fake certificates to the candidates for hefty sums. Further investigation is going on to determine the amounts paid to brokers and the method of payment.
Officials are also tracing how the verification email from the Directorate of Primary Education, Bikaner, intended for the Taekwondo Federation of India reached the arrested accused Vimalendu Kumar Jha.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
