Job at govt mint highly sensitive, says court, rejects pre-arrest bail pleas of 2

Indian Express

5 hours ago

Agreeing with the police's contention that a job in a government mint is a highly sensitive position, a sessions court recently rejected the anticipatory bail application of two employees booked for allegedly using dummy candidates to appear for an online exam for the job.
The court was told that departmental inquiry is ongoing against the two and at least five others after it came to light that their photographs of the persons who appeared in the online exam did not match the accused persons, who work at the government mint.
The MRA Marg police station of the Mumbai Police had filed an FIR on allegations of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code and the Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University Board and other Specified Examination, Act.
Lokendra Kumar and Aditya Kumar — both residents of Uttar Pradesh — sought anticipatory bail, stating that they are innocent and there is no material to prove that they were involved in such an offence. They also submitted that since a departmental inquiry is already ongoing, their custodial interrogation by the police is not required.
Police opposed their pleas stating that the mint is a very important office where coins, commemorative coins, medals, and medallions are produced and gold stocks are held. Police sought to probe whether those named are involved in any espionage and who helped them secure the job. It is suspected that the candidates were involved in the exams given from 2019-2023.
'By perusing the application and the prosecution's say, departmental inquiry is going on against the applicant. It is also alleged that the photograph provided at the time of the examination does not match the actual photograph…,' additional sessions judge, Avinash Kulkarni said in the order, rejecting the pre-arrest bail pleas of both the men, on July 19, which was made available on July 21.
'Accordingly, it is alleged that a bogus person appeared for the examination using applicant's Aadhaar card and other identity documents. The position in question is admitted to be highly sensitive,' the order added. The anticipatory bail pleas of two others are pending.
The case relates to a complaint from the Human Resources office of the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India. Police said that after CCTV footage of one of the exams revealed that a person who appeared did not match the photograph of the candidate, a probe was conducted into the recruitment held for the posts of junior assistants and other technical posts and a departmental inquiry was ordered against seven.