Delhi court sentences man to 3-year jail for cheating in clerk recruitment exam

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) A Delhi court has sentenced a former UGC clerk to three years' simple imprisonment for cheating and impersonation in a 2013 recruitment examination.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mayank Goel awarded the sentence to ex-lower divisional clerk (LDC) Pappu Kumar, who had been earlier convicted under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine).

In an order dated December 22, the court said, "The offence in question was committed by the convict with his eyes wide open and with full knowledge that the act committed by him is illegal. Despite being aware of the crime committed by him, he did not plead guilty before the court and chose to contest the case, which unfortunately dragged on for about 9 years." The court sentenced Kumar to three years simple imprisonment for the offences under IPC sections 120B, 419, 420 and 471.

Kumar was arrested after a formal complaint was filed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in July 2015 about the alleged large-scale irregularities in the LDC recruitment process conducted in 2013 through Educational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL).

According to the prosecution, the UGC had outsourced the recruitment process, including written and typing tests, to EdCIL.

It said after around 100 candidates were appointed in 2014, the UGC noticed that the performance of some newly recruited clerks was unsatisfactory and conducted an internal typing test.

Five candidates, including Kumar, failed to meet the required typing speed, prompting the UGC to seek forensic verification of their signatures and thumb impressions, the prosecution said.

It said subsequent reports from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) revealed that the signatures and thumb impressions on examination attendance sheets did not match those of the accused, indicating impersonation during the recruitment tests.

According to the prosecution, the forensic evidence conclusively established that someone else had appeared on behalf of Kumar in the written and skill tests held in 2013, enabling him to secure appointment fraudulently.

It said the UGC had terminated the services of the accused and other similarly placed candidates in July 2015 and referred the matter to the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which registered an FIR and conducted a detailed probe.

In its chargesheet filed in 2019, the CBI alleged that the accused, in conspiracy with each other and unknown persons, committed serious fraud with the malafide intention of cheating the UGC and causing wrongful financial loss. PTI SKM MNR KVK KVK