MUMBAI: The MRA Marg police on Thursday registered an FIR based on a complaint of the Security Printing Press and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL), alleging that at least seven candidates, who appeared for their competitive examinations between 2019 and 2023, had used dummy candidates. The complaint stated that the alleged malpractice came to light when the candidates joined duty but their faces were found to be different from the photographs of the candidates taken at the time of the examinations.
The police said that four of the seven, who were on probation, had been sacked, while three, who were confirmed in permanent jobs, had been suspended pending departmental proceedings.
The FIR was registered based on a complaint lodged by Inderdeep Kaur, deputy general manager, Human Resources, Indian Government Mint and the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd, which mints coins and prints banknotes.
According to the complaint, the department published advertisements for junior office assistants, junior bullion assistants and various technical posts from 2019 to 2023. The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducted competitive examinations for these posts. The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) and Chanakya Software Services Private Ltd conducted the skill tests of the candidates.
The alleged fraud came to light on February 8, 2025, when SPMCIL Hyderabad informed the Mumbai office that its CCTV footage showed that the person who had appeared as one of the candidates for the post of supervisor was not the one who had joined service.
“After that, the department decided to probe the recruitment process,” said a police officer from MRA Marg police station. During the inquiry, the department learnt that the employee’s name was Nishant Kumar and a proxy candidate, Atul Raj, had appeared on his behalf at the exam.
Realising the seriousness of the issue, a committee was set up to undertake a wider inquiry. IBPS and NIELIT were asked for the details of all the candidates that had appeared for the exams and the photos of those who had been recruited based on their exam performance. On March 22, 2025, the committee submitted its report, which stated that 51 candidates had been checked, and the photographs of the seven employees recruited did not match with the photos of the candidates who appeared in their name in the examination.
“A case has been registered against office assistant Lokesh Kumar, junior office assistant Atul Raj, junior bullion assistant Aditya Kumar, junior office assistants Ankit Kumar Agarwal and Ashwini Kumar, junior bullion officer Dhanraj Meena and junior technician Shailesh Kumar,” said the police officer. The individual exams for which dummy candidates appeared for all these were held from November 2020 to August 2023.
The police said that the committee relied on data available from IBPS and NIELIT from February 2023 to November 2023, as CCTV footage was available for the same period. An offence has been registered against the seven people and their dummy candidates under Sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable securities), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University, Board and other Specified Examinations Act, 1982.
No arrests have been made in the case as yet.