Bihar Police Constable Scam 2023: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided several states in connection with the money laundering investigation of the scam in the police constable recruitment during the year 2023 in Bihar. Official sources said that the ED raided several locations in Bihar, Jharkhand, UP and West Bengal.
Sources told PTI that in Bihar’s Patna and Nalanda, Ranchi (Jharkhand), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal), at least a dozen bases of private institutions such as agents, members of the examination paper leak syndicate and their colleagues were raided under the Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
According to sources, a press in Kolkata in which the examination papers were printed were also covered by the Federal Investigation Agency officials. It was told that the mastermind of this alleged scam is the mastermind of the 2024 NEET UG paper leak scam.
In fact, the purpose of recruitment of Bihar Police Constable 2023 was to fill 21,391 vacancies in various units of Bihar Police. Its examination was conducted on October 1, 2023 at 529 centers in 37 districts of Bihar, in which more than 18 lakh candidates participated. Following allegations of leaking paper related to this, the examination was canceled by the State Central Constable Selection Board (CSBC) on 3 October that year.
The matter of money laundering is aroused by some FIRs of Economic Offenses Unit of Bihar Police or EOU. The ED is suspected of money laundering in this case as a gang of agents earned the income (illegal money) of the crime by leaking the examination papers and selling the candidates and used the money given by the candidates to make private property.
According to sources, some police officers of Bihar are also under the scrutiny of ED. Seven private people were arrested by the state police in this case, three of whom were from West Bengal. The police blamed an interstate gang named Sanjeev Mukhiya behind this paper leak. The chief has worked as a technical assistant in a government college in Nalanda district. He is currently in judicial custody.
Bihar EOU found that an accused named Kaushik Kumar Kar has a Kolkata -based firm Caltex Multivator Private Limited and was given the contract to print and supply question papers for the Constable Recruitment Examination. However, it was discovered that the Caltex Multivator Private Limited was a room “shell” company, which had no employee and the printing and supply of question papers was outsourced to a company called Blessing Secure Press Private Limited, where the wife of the tax was the director.
According to the EOU, the tax was reportedly allegedly in 2019 for the recruitment examinations conducted by Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) and Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) in 2022. He founded the Blessing Secure Press Private Limited. The EOU said in a statement in 2023 that it saw serious deviations from standard operating procedures in relation to transportation, storage and handover of question papers by its colleagues.
According to the consent, instead of sending the question paper to the state treasury, the affiliated firms sent them to the warehouse owned by DP World Express Logistics Private Limited in Patna, where they stayed for six days without informing the officials. During this period, the tax approached the members of the Sanjeev Mukhiya gang and opened the question papers and distributed among the gang members, so that the candidates could be further distributed.
After this, according to the EOU, he paid adequate amount for advance information. During the examination on 1 October 2023, many candidates were caught using electronic equipment and other fraud methods, due to which the examination was postponed.
Later complaints of irregularities canceled the examination and postponed the tests prescribed for October 7 and October 15 (2023). NEET-UG is organized by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission to MBBS, BDS, Ayush and other related courses in government and private institutions.
In the year 2024, the exam was held on May 5 at 4,750 centers in 571 cities, including 14 foreign cities. More than 23 lakh candidates appeared for the examination. The Bihar Police allegedly started the action after receiving information about the paper leak and it soon turned into a big political issue. The Union Ministry of Education handed over the investigation of the case to the CBI, which took an investigation into the case from various states including Bihar and lodged several FIRs in the case.
In this case, the ED team reached Bariyatu area of ​​Ranchi to raid. Where the ED also searched at Alexander Yadavindu’s residence. Alexander Yadavendu was restored to the post of Junior Engineer in Bihar. He is currently out on bail.