More skeletons tumble out of CRPF recruitment scam

New Delhi, May 7 (PTI) Widening its crackdown on alleged
recruitment racket within the Central Reserve Police Force
(CRPF), the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's top
investigating agency, Thursday arrested three persons,
including a Deputy Inspector General of the paramilitary
force.

CBI sources said the agency arrested CRPF DIG T M Basla
along with the Commandant of the force's 134 battalion, B S
Sidhu, and Pankaj Chaurasia, a tout, for alleged corruption
and bungling in the recruitment of the ranks in the newly
formed anti-naxal force COBRA.

A total of 11 people have been arrested in the last two
days in connection with the scam which included Bihar CRPF
Inspector General Pushkar Singh, who was arrested on May six.

During searches at the residence of Sidhu in Chandigarh,
the agency recovered 10 live cartridges, sources said.

In raids conducted on May five at 20 locations spread
across Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,
CBI had recovered nearly Rs 1.15 crore in cash and fixed
deposits.

Of the total seizure, about Rs 23 lakh was recovered from
the residence of Singh besides fixed deposits worth Rs 15
lakh, sources said.

The touts used to allegedly contact the aspirants and
assure them a job in return of huge sum of money, they said.

The alleged conspiracy was being executed by a network of
touts spread across the five states, who had contacts with
senior officials of the force, sources said.

CRPF Director General A S Gill, reacting to the scam
busted by the CBI, had said changes in the entire recruitment
process of the force would be effected soon.

Earlier in February, the CBI, in a similar case, had
arrested the force's DIG in Lucknow, a head constable and a
tout, who were following a similar modus operandi.

According to the sources, the accused charged between Rs
two to three lakh from an aspirant to get him recruited to the
post of a constable. In the event of the candidate failing to
get selected even after payment of the full amount, the
money was returned to him.

The CBI is closely monitoring the recruitment process of
the paramilitary force after its former DG V K Joshi wrote to
the agency last year in this regard. PTI SKL
DEP