Three Lt Cols booked for IMA recruitment scam

Three Lt Cols booked for IMA recruitment scam Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 11
A two-year-old recruitment scam has hit the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) here. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked three serving Lieutenant Colonels and frozen their bank accounts for their alleged role in the scam.

The CBI has booked the officers for allegedly issuing fake experience certificates and replacing the original answer sheets of the candidates who appeared in the group ‘C’ and group ‘D’ recruitments held at IMA in 2012.

Meanwhile, the CBI has reportedly found evidence of illicit financial transactions during the preliminary enquiry and has reportedly frozen the bank accounts of the accused officers namely Lt Col Akhilesh Mishra (the then MTO in IMA), Lt Col Jagdish Bishnoi (the then selection board member for the group ‘C’ category) and Lt Col Ambarish Tewari (the then administration officer Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) and selection board member of group ‘D’ category) and other accused persons.

The investigating body has registered a case against 22 persons including Army officers and officials of establishment board.

According to sources, the CBI is likely to interrogate the three officers and other accused in the case soon. This might be followed with the filing of a charge sheet in the case. The CBI has booked the serving officers for alleged conspiracy and forgery.

In 2012, recruitment for 283 posts in group ‘C’ and ‘D’ was held at the IMA. Later, the documents of 36 employees were found forged after their documents were sent to the issuing authority for final verification. Accordingly, the services of errant employees were terminated by the IMA. When the scam came into the limelight last year, the case was taken over by the CBI.

Public Relation Officer of IMA, Major Prashant Tripathi, told The Tribune, “The IMA is nowhere in the loop and the matter is between the CBI and Army headquarters. We were only asked to hand over all the documents related to the 2012 recruitment of group ‘C’ and ‘D’. That we did in April last year.”

On the question of holding an internal inquiry, he said, “We are waiting for the final CBI report in the case that the agency will submit to the Army headquarters. Then, the further course of action will be decided.”