Aadhaar Fraud Used To Hijack Exam Gwalior-Chambal Region Epicentre Of Cop Recruitment Scam-2023

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Gwalior-Morena district had emerged as the epicentre of the police recruitment scam-2023, which was carried out through Aadhaar manipulation, said officials here on Thursday.

Recently, the police busted a racket of manipulating the Aadhaar card of candidates who appeared in the exam, so that they cleared the test with the help of solvers.

While the FIRs registered so far and the ongoing investigations have led the police to over 20 candidates who were selected through this fraud, it would not be surprising if the numbers zoom to 50-100 as the investigations gather pace and more FIRs are registered in the coming days.

“A clutch of solvers has also been identified. Some of them hail from Morena and Sheopur districts of Gwalior-Chambal region of MP, besides some others from Bihar who have already been arrested,” a senior police officer said.

Sources privy to the ongoing investigations in different districts of the state told the Free Press that the photos and biometrics (fingerprints) were manipulated with the help of select Aadhar card centres in Gwalior and Morena districts, including one in Bhitarwar (Gwalior).

“While the epicentre of the entire fraud is Morena district, suspects in adjoining Gwalior, Shivpuri, Sheopur and Bhind districts of the same Gwalior-Chambal region too played key roles,” a police officer said.

“The Aadhaar card of each of the beneficiary candidates was updated/modified twice, first just before the written test in July-August 2023 and later just before the PPT in October-December 2024.

While the unique Aadhaar number remained unchanged, the pictures and fingerprints (of the Aadhaar card-holder, who was the actual candidate) were replaced with those of the solver. With the modified Aadhaar card, the solver appeared in the written test in place of the actual candidate in 2023,” sources connected with the ongoing probe said.

“Those running the rackets charged ₹10-15 lakh from individual candidates (actual beneficiaries), out of which ₹4-5 lakh was given to the solvers,” a police officer said.

ADG selection and recruitment, Sonali Mishra said, “Most of the people connected with the crime are from the northern part of the state, like Bhind, Morena and Gwalior. The cases are registered in different parts of the state, but the people are connected to these districts”.

She said that one solver had appeared for multiple candidates, because the exam was held on different dates. In coming days, more cases would be registered in the matter, she said.