3 govt employees, including BCS cadre selectee, arrested over proxy exam fraud
CID says the suspects were part of an organised syndicate that allegedly supplied proxy candidates to help applicants fraudulently secure government jobs.
Highlights
- Handwriting mismatch exposed alleged recruitment scam
- Six members of fraud ring arrested so far
- Syndicate allegedly arranged proxy candidates for jobs
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested three government employees, including a recently selected BCS cadre, for their alleged involvement in an organised proxy examination fraud syndicate that helped candidates secure government jobs.
The arrested are Nurunnabi, 55, Md Sohel, 40, and Zulfikar Ali, also known as Raihan, 29, confirmed CID Additional Superintendent of Police (Media) Abu Taleb yesterday (31 July)
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Among the arrested, Nurunnabi and Sohel work as office assistants at the Divisional Tax Commissioner's Office, Tax Zone-2, in Agrabad, Chattogram, while Zulfikar is a junior assistant manager at the Matarbari Coal Power Project. He was recently recommended for the Cooperative Cadre in the 45th BCS examination.
He said the suspects were arrested on 30 July during separate operations in Chattogram and Cox's Bazar by the CID's Noakhali district unit.
With the latest arrests, six members of the alleged fraud syndicate have now been detained and produced before a court, he said.
According to the CID, the Internal Resources Division under the Ministry of Finance invited online applications to recruit personnel for Grade 13 to Grade 20 posts under Tax Zone Noakhali. The written examinations were held on 5 June at three centres in Noakhali.
Following the written, practical and viva examinations, 112 candidates were provisionally selected and instructed on 21 June to complete joining formalities by submitting the required documents.
During document verification, officials detected discrepancies between the handwriting on application forms and educational certificates submitted by two successful candidates - Md Kamal Uddin, selected as an office assistant, and Md Nasfurullah, selected as an office assistant-cum-computer typist - and the handwriting on checklists completed during the viva examination.
When asked to rewrite the same text, their handwriting differed significantly, raising suspicion. During questioning, both allegedly admitted that proxy candidates had appeared in the written and viva examinations on their behalf.
On 22 June, officials found similar handwriting inconsistencies involving another selected candidate, Md Sujon. During the verification process, a man accompanying him, Rashed Uddin, fled the scene. Sujon later admitted that a proxy candidate had also sat the examinations on his behalf, according to the CID.
The three selected candidates were detained the same day and handed over to Sudharam Model Police Station in Noakhali, where a case was filed.
CID later took over the investigation and said it uncovered evidence of an organised syndicate that had long been supplying proxy candidates in exchange for money to help applicants fraudulently obtain government jobs.
Based on information gathered during the investigation, CID officers arrested Nurunnabi and Sohel from the Tax Zone-2 office in Agrabad, Chattogram, and Zulfikar Ali from the Matarbari Coal Power Project area in Cox's Bazar while he was allegedly attempting to flee to Dhaka.
