In the past two days, Nagpur police have arrested five people for allegedly helping unqualified candidates secure government teaching jobs, and even promotions as principal of schools, using fake appointment letters and forged documents.
A police officer at Nagpur’s Sadar police station confirmed that they arrested Ulhas Narad (54), deputy director of education from Gadchiroli, and Parag Nanaji Pudke (33), a school principal at Nanaji Pudke School, in Lakhni Bhandara, for allegedly forging the promotion documents late Friday night.
Narad has been accused of approving a fake teacher identification number on the Shalarth portal (a portal used to streamline the payment of salary grant) to Pudke using fake documents, enabling him to draw a government salary, said the officer.
According to police, Narad approved Pudke’s Shalarth ID and promotion without verifying his teaching background. Pudke was not on the school rolls but was promoted as principal over other senior staff members.
Inspector at Sadar police station Manish Thakre said the whistleblower in this case was a painter who overheard a conversation between the teachers, who were discussing how Pudke was promoted without having any prior experience.
Three more arrests were made on Sunday. Nilesh Shankarrao Meshram, a Class II education officer; education sub-inspector Sanjay Shankarrao Dudhalkar and Suraj Punjaram Naik, a senior clerk at the education deputy director’s office in Nagpur, were arrested on Sunday.
During investigation, police found that Pudke had allegedly paid a bribe to Meshram to forge the documents, which were then processed and approved by Dudhalkar and Naik, before finally being sanctioned by Narad.
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The accused have been booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery on purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document as genuine), 472 (making or possessing counterfeit seal, plate etc), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, banker, etc), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 34 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhitya (BNS)
Deputy Commissioner of Police Rahul Madne said, “Several ‘Shalarth Ids’ are now under scrutiny. We secured a day’s custody of all the five accused for further investigation on Monday.”
Police said that there is a possibility that the case is linked to a development that came to the fore last week. According to a confidential letter by Maharashtra School Education and Sports Department dated April 9, the state government suspended Nilesh Waghmare, superintendent of the salary and Provident Fund unit (primary), Zilla Parishad, Nagpur, for his alleged involvement in the misappropriation of government funds, through his involvement in recruiting 580 ineligible teachers and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools. He is accused of providing Shalarth IDs to the ineligible teaching and non-teaching staff members.
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