MPSC scam: Suspended cop, government employee booked in cheating case

Duo arrested in 2017 for appearing as dummy candidates in MPSC exam.

A suspended policeman and a government employee, who were arrested in 2017 for appearing as dummy candidates in place of aspirants in the Maharashtra Public Services Commission (MPSC) exams, were booked in yet another case in Dadar last week.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has registered a case at Shivaji Park police station on June 22 against Somnath Parve, suspended Assistant Police Inspector, and Prabodh Rathod, a state government employee from Nanded.

The third accused in the case, Narendra Naik, who was slated to appear for the Police Sub-Inspector exam at Balmohan Vidyamandir in Shivaji Park in August 2016, had allegedly paid Parve and Rathod to send a dummy candidate to write his test.

A chargesheet filed by the SIT in 2017 had stated that Parve and Rathod would impersonate candidates depending on their resemblance to the aspirant. They would use image editing software to edit pictures of candidates attached on the examination hall tickets for a fee ranging between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.

In the 2016 exam, Rathod had allegedly impersonated Naik, police said. All the three men have been booked on charges of cheating, forgery, impersonation and for hatching a criminal conspiracy under the IPC.

An official from Shivaji Park police station said that the police will now seek the custody of the accused in order to interrogate them.

Initial estimates by the police in 2017 pegged the number of candidates, whom Parve and Rathod had impersonated in exams over the past six years, at 400. The exams were for various posts like Police Sub Inspector, clerk, civil engineering assistant and supervisor in departments such as revenue, police, agriculture and treasury.

In April 2017, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced the formation of an SIT to probe into the scam.

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