Rajasthan’s Special Operations Group (SOG) has filed FIRs against 65 individuals who allegedly used fake documents and dummy candidates to secure government jobs in various departments. The investigation, initiated five years ago, gained momentum in 2024 after suspicious records emerged during internal verifications.
DIG Paris Deshmukh, heading the SOG, revealed that the accused include lab assistants, physical training instructors (PTIs), teachers, librarians, and junior assistants who manipulated the recruitment process conducted by the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSMSSB) between 2018 and 2022. In several cases, candidates submitted mismatched photographs, signatures, or fake B.Ed degrees to fraudulently clear written exams and interviews.
Following a state-wide directive issued on June 6, 2024, to scrutinize employee credentials, over 297 government employees were flagged as suspicious by departmental committees. Of these, SOG has verified 65 and registered four separate FIRs. Investigations continue against others.
Dummy Candidates, Forged Degrees, and Photographic Mismatches
The SOG’s probe has revealed how dummy candidates were sent to appear for exams on behalf of real applicants, and how some forged entire educational credentials. For example, Ajmal Meena, posted as a lab assistant at a Sawai Madhopur school, was found to have cleared the 2018 recruitment exam using a proxy. Similarly, Manraj Meena from Loruada school and Khushraj Singh Meena, a librarian in Jalore, also made it to government jobs through fraudulent means.
In many cases, forensic checks of application forms found that the candidates’ submitted photographs did not match the ones on the exam attendance sheets. Suresh Kumar, posted as a junior assistant in Jalore, failed to match both photograph and signature records. Omprakash, a teacher in Banda, and Mukesh Kumar Choudhary, a PTI in Jalore, were found guilty of similar inconsistencies.
Notably, some FIRs also mention candidates who appeared to possess suspicious B.Ed degrees — a red flag for educational fraud that could have implications for other state recruitment drives.
State-Wide Scrutiny: 40+ Committees on the Ground
To ensure thorough verification, more than 40 departmental committees were formed across Rajasthan. These committees were tasked with scrutinizing employment records of those recruited through RSMSSB exams. The Directorate of Secondary Education (Bikaner), a key player in the investigation, played a central role by mobilizing regional teams and forwarding verified cases to the SOG.
According to officials, the department’s analysis revealed deep-rooted irregularities in multiple divisions, especially in Jalore, Sanchore, Pali, and Barmer. Shockingly, the same school in some cases had more than one tainted employee, raising concerns about organized syndicates targeting specific examination centers and districts.
The SOG is now expected to expand its probe into the role of intermediaries and possibly insiders in the recruitment board or affiliated agencies.