RailEnquiry

NAGPUR: The Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) anti-corruption wing sleuths on Wednesday arrested two people, including a suspended Central Railway head train number clerk (TNC), for duping two railway job aspirants to the tune of Rs 29 lakhs. A third accused, Virendra Singh Khairwar, is already behind bars after being arrested for the murder of a labour contractor last month.CBI conducted search operations at four places after the two (names withheld) from Kamptee who were duped lodged a complaint with the agency. Several official letters on letterheads of railways, state education department, MSEDCL and other government agencies, and PSUs were found. The CBI has also seized two laptops from the residence of Vijay Patel, the TNC, in Central Railways' Ajni colony. A laptop has been seized from the residence of Archana Mehta, the other accused, at MIDC Road in Hingna. More than half a dozen mobile phones, sim cards and pen drives too have been seized.The officers would now verify the authenticity of the 'official' letters. Most of the correspondences were regarding postings.Patel, Mehta and Khairwar have been slapped relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act too.TOI has learnt that Khairwar was previously convicted in a job fraud case in 2011 and had been sentenced, along with another person, to five years in jail and fined Rs 7 lakhs. One of the victims of Khairwar had committed suicide.

The CBI's investigations have revealed that Patel, in connivance with Mehta and Khairwar, had been promising people jobs in railways, government offices and PSUs for which they were extracting huge sums from them. The two complainants, who had paid Rs 29 lakhs through cash and cheques, were promised placement in the railways under various categories through the general manager's special quota. The complainants were issued appointment letters which turned out to be fake when they approached the Central Railway.

The trio had also conducted a fake medical test of the job aspirants at Mumbai before taking them for training in Bhusawal. However, the victims could not complete the training as they were told that the sessions had been overbooked.

Patel, who had represented Nagpur division of Central Railways in sports, had also offered jobs to some through the sports quota for which he was facing disciplinary action.

CBI said that Khairwar and Archana had floated a private company - Ganesh HRD - and was functioning from an apartment at Atrey Layout in Rana Pratap Nagar. Job aspirants from all over India had registered with them.

The CBI team, led by inspector Pradeep Lande, senior PIs Hemant Kharabe, Hanumant Jangid and sub-inspectors Santosh Munde and Tarun Sinha, found several biodata of job aspirants.