CRPF IG, 7 others arrested in recruitment scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday arrested an inspector general of CRPF along with a commandant of the force for alleged corruption and bungling in recruitment in the anti-Naxal force COBRA.

The agency also arrested certain other people, including a suspended CRPF constable, a day after conducting searches at 20 locations spread across Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in connection with the scam, agency sources said.

IG Bihar Pushkar Singh was arrested in Patna in the wee hours while the accused commandant Yajbinder Singh and suspended CRPF constable Mukesh Kumar, who was allegedly the kingpin of the racket were arrested in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand.

The CBI had allegedly recovered over Rs 23 lakh from the residence of the IG on Tuesday during a search, the sources said.

Others arrested include Kumar's wife Swati and four other touts, they said, alleging that another Rs 70 lakh were recovered from the possession of Swati. The CBI has alleged that it has also recovered documents of immovable properties and papers relating to accounts of payments and records of various aspirants.

The CBI said the touts use to allegedly contact the aspirants and assure them a job in lieu of huge sums of money, in the case.

The alleged conspiracy was being executed by a network of touts spread across the five states, who had contacts with senior officials of the force, a CBI spokesperson said.

Earlier in February, the CBI, in a similar case, had arrested the force's DIG in Lucknow, a head constable and a tout, who were following a similar modus operandi.

According to the sources, the money being charged for recruitment of a constable varied between Rs 2 and Rs 3 lakh. They said if a candidate was not selected even after payment of the full amount, the money was given back by the touts.

The CBI is closely monitoring the recruitment process of the paramilitary force after its former Director General V K Joshi wrote to the agency last year to do so to check any misconduct.