Aadhaar fraud in police constable exam: Munna Bhai-style scam in Madhya Pradesh
Sources confirm that at least a dozen people have been arrested across three districts, including both the candidates who applied and the impostors who took the exams for them.It may be noted that the recruitment exam was held between August 12 and September 12, 2023 and as many as 7 lakh applicants appeared for 7,090 positions. The written test results were declared in March 2024, followed by final selections made in March 2025 after physical tests. It was during the joining phase that discrepancies in identity verification began to surface. In one such case, Ram Roop Gurjar from Morena arrived at the SP Office in Alirajpur to assume his post. However, the officials became suspicious when his Aadhaar card appeared to have been tampered with and his admit card photo did not match his current appearance. advertisementThe officials ran a fingerprint analysis which confirmed the person who appeared for the exam was not Gurjar, but someone else. Upon questioning, Gurjar confessed that a solver named Amarendra Singh from Bihar had taken the exam for him for Rs 1 lakh. The police have arrested both in the case. Soon more cases started coming to light in other districts as well. In Morena, candidates Radha Charan and Dinesh Singh had similarly manipulated their Aadhaar data, updating biometrics before and after the exam to facilitate identity swaps. In Sheopur district, a larger racket was uncovered with seven arrests, including three selected candidates, namely Sonu Rawat, Santosh Rawat and Aman Singh, and their solvers. Aadhaar agents who enabled biometric alterations were also taken into custody.Upon investigation, authorities discovered that the entire operation followed a disturbingly well-organised and methodical pattern. Solvers would first identify candidates willing to pay for a guaranteed pass. After which, aadhaar biometrics were manipulated through internal system access, swapping fingerprints and facial data. The solvers would then sit for the exams and physical tests. After the process, the candidates' original biometrics were restored to avoid detection during the joining phase. The fraud was exposed only when biometric mismatches occurred at the final verification stage.advertisementThe government has initiated a confidential investigation in the matter. This scandal draws uncomfortable parallels with the infamous Vyapam scam, in which proxy candidates were used in entrance and recruitment exams, leading to national outrage and a series of mysterious deaths.With inputs from Chandrabhan Bhadauria, Khemraj Dubey and Dushyant
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India Today
25 minutes ago
- India Today
Robert Vadra: Politics is in the heir
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated Feb 20, 2012)The oldest political dynasty in India has a new dynast. On February 6, Robert Vadra, 42, chose Rae Bareli, the headquarters of Gandhi Inc, political home of Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, to announce his ambitions. Astride a motorcycle, he declared: "If people want, I can join politics.'' The people did not reply; and the Congress party was a bit hesitant about its reaction. Most Congressmen were stunned. Loyalty lines were Gandhi, 41, was their chosen leader, and sister Priyanka, 40, a support rather than threat. What would her husband Robert constitute? In public perception, Rae Bareli had been allotted to Priyanka. She was seen as the natural successor to the family seat. Vadra has disrupted all calculations; the unspoken worry is that Vadra has developed prime ministerial ambitions and is now ready to voice who was campaigning in Amethi, 60 km away, blamed the media for asking her husband a golmatol (roundabout) question. She understood the implications, because a dynasty cannot have two heirs without Mughal-style war eventually breaking out. "He (Vadra) is a successful businessman and has no time for politics,'' she said. But her successful businessman refused to back down. In yet another interview, this time to a news channel, he reiterated his statement: "I think there is a time and place for everything. The day I feel that I can make a difference for the people, and the people would like me representing them... That calling will come at some stage, I feel.'' This was as plain as ambition can get. Suddenly Vadra, who has spent 15 years in the shadows, did not look apologetic about space in the limelight. 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The rally was officially in support of the local candidate Shiv Balak Pasi, who rode pillion on Vadra's bike. But it was in truth a coming-out also rode into controversy for violating the model code of conduct when the District Election Officer Pawan Sain stopped him. The 2005 batch IAS officer was promptly issued a transfer order even though the Election Commission (EC) claimed the order had been issued days earlier. However, the EC later said that Sain would stay on till the polls were has benefited from his association with the Gandhi family. Some privileges are minor but irritants in the public eye. For instance, the exemption from pre-embarkation security check at all the airports of the country. There are 31 categories of exemption, Vadra is the only one named, a category of his own. The remaining 30 are defined by rank and his marriage, Vadra's business has grown exponentially. His father Rajinder Vadra ran a brassware export business in Moradabad. Young Vadra started Artex, a handicrafts and fashion accessories business in 1997, the year he got married. In earlier interviews, he has spoken of how he went door to door selling samples. "It's not easy to set up a business from scratch. I went to Chawri Bazar and into the galis of Old Delhi to find my suppliers. I travelled the world with a bag of samples, went door to door to find buyers. I got pushed away many times but I persisted. And we have done very well. We have come a long way,'' he told a paper in brass-to-gold story is now in the public domain. In March 2011, a pink paper reported details about his "quiet and unheralded entry'' into the real estate business, including a partnership and wide-ranging transactions with the country's biggest realty firm, DLF. According to the paper, Vadra scaled up and diversified his business in 2007, acquiring tracts of land in Haryana and Rajasthan, a 50 per cent stake in a leading business hotel in Delhi, and attempting an entry into the business of charter aircraft. Several of his companies have received loans, some of them unsecured, from DLF Group responded to the report, saying that his association with DLF stemmed from a long-standing friendship with the family that controls the realty giant. "I have known the DLF people for a long time and they are friends of mine. I had wanted to invest in real estate and one thing led to another,'' he said. He took pains to clarify that he was doing things on his own. DLF claimed that the "business relationship of DLF Group with Vadra has been in his capacity as an individual entrepreneur and on a completely transparent and arms-length basis" So far, Vadra's growing empire has escaped public scrutiny because he has remained a private individual. If he becomes a claimant for legislature and office, he will have to abandon that returned to Delhi with Priyanka on the evening of February 6 after his news-making trip to Rae Bareli. Priyanka hit the campaign trail again on February 9. There is no word on Vadra's plans. Sources say the embarrassed Congress is looking for a way to rein in the son-in-law. "He has stolen the limelight from Rahul. Whatever gains Congress has made because of Rahul's efforts will come to naught if damage control is not done,'' rues a Congress has infused some life into a dead Uttar Pradesh Congress but Vadra has put the party on the backfoot. At the Centre too, the Congress leadership is not sure how to deal with Vadra; marriage creates obvious sensitivities. Questions remain in the mind: does Vadra have Sonia Gandhi's permission? Is he putting pressure on his wife? The official party line was offered by General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. "People have interpreted Vadra's statement in a different context, I have nothing to add after Priyanka Gandhi's clarification on her husband's political ambitions,'' said Singhvi. He did not comment on Vadra's statements made in the wake of Priyanka's statements over the years, indicate that politics has always been a temptation, although his claimed focus is on his business, which he runs from his old 268, Sukhdev Vihar home in South Delhi. Maybe the time has come, in his calculation, for the crossover step. His business is flourishing and his persona familiar to media. He loves a party, whether it is at LAP night club or F-Bar at Ashok Hotel. He is not averse to being photographed in body-hugging black leather, which even earned him the Best Dressed Man Award from a city supplement in December 2011.A fitness fanatic, he is obsessed with his body, which he loves to display-be it in a fitness glossy or on his Facebook profile. He loves the toys that money can buy, and has an array of luxury cars, including a black 500 SEL Mercedes, a top-end BMW and a recently acquired Range Rover. Being protected by the Special Protection Group by virtue of marriage to Priyanka, he travels in style: his car is preceded by a pilot Gypsy with five Delhi Police commandos and followed by another Gypsy. In 2011, he purchased five top-end bikes-Hayabusa, Harley-Davidson and Ducati-though his friendly bike rides with brother-in-law Rahul have now has never been far from the headlines. Highs or lows, his life has been full of quirks and controversies. His uncle ran a school sponsored by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at the family farmhouse in Moradabad. He disassociated himself from his father Rajinder and brother Richard through a public legal notice in January 2002. He alleged that they were promising jobs and favours using his name and association with the Gandhi family. His late father sued Vadra for April 2009, his father was found dead in a rundown Yusuf Sarai motel during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. The police said it appeared to be a suicide. Nothing was proven. His brother Richard committed suicide in September 2003 in Moradabad at the family's home. Vadra's sister Michelle died in a car accident on the Delhi-Jaipur highway in April is close to his mother Maureen, an Anglo-Indian of Scottish origin, who is a director in his five companies established after 2007. Priyanka was a founder-director in one of his companies, Blue Breeze Trading Pvt Ltd, set up in 2007 for chartering aircraft. However, she disassociated herself from the company and ceased to be a director in July 2008. Of late, Vadra has been spending a lot of time travelling, mostly to Dubai and England, leading some to claim that he might have acquired NRI status. When in India, he is said to divide his time equally between his luxury apartment at DLF Aralias in Gurgaon, and the couple's home in Delhi's Lutyens' Zone, Lodi who has earned herself the sobriquet of barsaati mendak (monsoon frog) seen only during elections, is focusing on bringing up their two children. She is trying to ensure a normal childhood for them, even saying in an interview that she loves baking cupcakes for them. She is a good, sensible mother. Studying in The Shri Ram School in Delhi, the children are believed to be well-behaved, disciplined and fuss-free. Priyanka makes it a point to attend all parent-teacher meetings and is active in the school's Parent-Teacher peace of mind, Priyanka has been practising Vipassana (meditation) for over a decade. She has also completed a master's degree in Buddhism. She also met Nalini, her father Rajiv Gandhi's assassin, in Vellore jail in 2008 "to make peace with the violence'' in her life. 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News18
25 minutes ago
- News18
Bengaluru Couple Get 'Jai Hind, Jai Indian Army' Call, Lose Rs 2 Lakh
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India Gazette
39 minutes ago
- India Gazette
MP CM Mohan Yadav discusses 3.0 GW solar project in state with Grew Energy CEO in Dubai
Dubai [UAE], July 14 (ANI): Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mohan Yadav, held a crucial meeting with CEO and Director of Grew Energy Private Limited, Vinay Thadani, and his delegation on Monday regarding proposed investments in the state as part of his official visit to Dubai. The discussions, as detailed in a post by the MP Chief Minister's Office on X, centred on the 3.0 gigawatt solar cell project in the state's Narmadapuram district, which is expected to create over 700 jobs and position Madhya Pradesh as a leader in the sustainable energy sector. The meeting, part of Yadav's ongoing tour from July 13 to 19, aimed to attract significant foreign investment, with a particular emphasis on renewable energy and industrial growth. 'Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav, during his Dubai visit, held a meeting with Mr. Vinay Thadani, CEO and Director of Grew Energy Private Limited, and the delegation regarding proposed investments in Madhya Pradesh,' the MP Chief Minister's Office stated in a post on X. 'The meeting focused on the special industrial assistance provided by the state government for the 3.0 gigawatt solar cell project to be established in Narmadapuram district. It is noteworthy that this project will create over 700 employment opportunities and will prove to be a significant initiative in establishing Madhya Pradesh as a leading state in the sustainable energy sector,' it added. As per Thadani, his company had already committed Rs 3,000 crore to Madhya Pradesh, with commercial operations slated to begin in March 2026 and further expressed optimism about further expansion that is expected to go up to Rs 10,000 crores. 'The meeting with the CM was very energetic. We have already invested in Madhya Pradesh, worth approximately Rs 3000 crore, and are currently discussing the commercial date, scheduled for March. Our group chairmen also met with the CM and we discussed our further expansion plans, which will go up to Rs 10,000 crores in the upcoming years, in which investment in the renewable sector, investment in textiles plus flexible packaging, and investment in all sectors where our users are already present,' Thadani stated. He praised Madhya Pradesh's administrative support and central location, saying, 'Madhya Pradesh has been very cooperative in all forms, whether it is administrative or vision-wise... and secondly, geographically, it is located in the centre of the country, which helps all industry.' Yadav's official visit to Dubai in the UAE and to Spain is scheduled from July 13 to July 19. The aim of his visit is to bring global investment to Madhya Pradesh, encourage technology sharing, and create new job opportunities under the umbrella of 'Global Dialogue 2025'. (ANI)
