Patna: In fresh action in the Bihar fake government job scam, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted search operations at 16 locations across the country and seized incriminating documents and digital evidence, an official said on Friday.
The Directorate of Enforcement, Patna Zonal Office, carried out searches under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, at 16 locations including Muzaffarpur, Motihari, Kolkata, Ernakulam, Pandalam, Adoor, Kodur, Chennai, Rajkot, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj and Lucknow, according to an official statement.
During the search operations, various documents and materials, including sale deeds, bank account details, handwritten notes, cheques, loan agreements, investment details, copies of fake job advertisements and digital evidence, were recovered and seized, the ED said.
The federal probe agency initiated the investigation based on an FIR registered at the Sonpur GRPS police station under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, against Deepak Kumar Tiwari and Saksham Srivastava. They were allegedly found soliciting job seekers at Sonpur Railway Station in Bihar.
During interrogation, the accused were found to be part of a gang that defrauded people by promising government jobs, the statement said.
The gang allegedly operated a sophisticated fake job racket targeting aspirants for government positions in the Indian Railways and other departments, offering posts such as RPF personnel, TTEs and technicians, the ED said.
They allegedly forged joining letters, operated fake training centres, and created fake identity cards and email IDs resembling official government addresses, including ‘gm.eer.rail.net.gov.in@gmail.com to impersonate the Ministry of Railways while forwarding fake joining letters to candidates.
The accused also allegedly credited salaries for two to three months from government-sounding bank accounts such as “M/s Treasury Office RO”, “M/s FCI RO”, “RRB” and “By Salary” to make the job offers appear legitimate, the probe agency said.
(IANS)
