17 cases of fraud in 2018; process on to file FIRs

CHANDIGARH: Army recruitment officers (AROs) have started taking extra precautions while selecting candidates from Haryana after coming across a number of cases where aspirants used fraudulent means to join the forces. In the latest instance, an officer in Charkhi Dadri district of Haryana has come across at least five instances where youths tampered with their Aadhaar cards and got recruited.According to information accessed by TOI, the aspirants used the facility to make corrections in Aadhaar cards and either entered the details of their siblings or entered fresh educational qualifications obtained through the open school system to become eligible.Director, ARO, Charkhi Dadri, Col A K Pillai has written a letter to the Charkhi Dadri deputy commissioner, who is authorised to access Aadhaar data to get information about the five candidates who allegedly made illegal corrections.Pillai told TOI, “Ashok (name changed) was overage to participate in the army’s recruitment process. So, he used his younger brother Sandeep ’s documents to participate in the selection process...”Pillai said, "As Aadhaar is mandatory for participation, he made corrections in his Aadhaar card by adding the name and date of birth of his brother after providing necessary documents to the Aadhaar authority.”In other cases, candidates procured fresh matriculation certificates from the open school system with a new date of birth and minor changes in name (like Rajbir Chaudhary would bechanged into Rajbir Singh ). “Again they made a request for corrections in the Aadhaar database, which is permissible by producing some documents, and appeared for the selection process with fresh details. Their biometrics, thus, remained unchanged,” explained the officer.Pillai, who is in-charge of recruiting youths from four districts, including Dadri, Mahendergarh, Rewari and Bhiwani, says they have found many cases of impersonation and cheating by local youths keen to join the army, but making corrections in Aadhaar details is a new way to deceive authorities. “Once I receive information on the five suspect cases, I will start the process of registering an FIR,” he said. “Candidates were also found to have procured PAN cards on the basis of changed details.”ARO conducts one recruitment rally in a year to fill vacancies allotted by the Army headquarters. Around 20 youths were booked last year by the police for adopting various cheating methods in the selection process.As many as 17 cases of fraud have been detected this year and the process of filing FIRs has been started. In most of the cases, the cheating was detected after the candidates were selected but had not yet joined the training centres.