The Indian Railways, in their recruitment drive to fill nearly a lakh vacancies at the lower tier, reportedly came across a large number of fake candidates.
According to The Indian Express, nearly 200 FIRs have been filed under Section 416 (cheating by impersonation) of the IPC against the fake candidates and those whom they are writing the tests for.
The Railway exam invigilators simply filtered the fake candidates by seeing if the faces matched the photographs on admit cards, reported The Indian Express.
“It’s not as if the impersonator and the actual candidate looked similar. It’s just some other person altogether. In a few cases, though, the impersonators made an effort to look like genuine candidates… wearing spectacles or even getting a certain type of haircut to match the photographs on the admit cards.”Senior Railways official to The Indian Express
According to The Indian Express report, around 80 FIRs were filed in Bihar and Jharkhand and the rest in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.
Officials told The Indian Express that invigilators discovered this trend at the beginning of the recruitment drive, when exams for 26,502 vacancies in the Group C category for assistant loco pilots and technicians were going on.
Reportedly, at least 176 fake candidates were spotted during Group D exams out of which 161 FIRs were lodged, and the remaining just fled the scene.
One of the board's websites warns against "touts and job racketeers," saying:
“Candidates attempting unfair means shall be disqualified and legal action shall be initiated against them.”
One of the officials informed The Indian Express that canidates allowing illegal representation in exams will be disqualified from future recruitment drives.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
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