Police-recruitment racket busted, four arrested, search on for former cops

The Detective Department(DD) has arrested four constables, Debasis Manna, Tanmoy Roy, Sanjay Prasad Shawa, all residents of Hooghly, and Aniruddho Singha Mahapatra, resident of Purulia. They had recently joined the police force through the racket.

Sleuths are also looking for two former cops who ran the racket, including one Gopal Das, a resident of Konnagar, who was recently suspended after rape charges were filed against him.

The incident came to light when Debasis visited the PRO office with his appointment letter.

Officials, however, grew suspicious at his frail figure and interrogated him, following which he broke down and confessed that he had paid an amount to clear the physical examination. Subsequently, an investigation was initiated and the racket was blown off.

“We have learnt that some former cops are involved in the racket. They charge Rs 1-3 lakh from each candidate. They arrange for a dummy candidate with good physical built who appears on behalf of the real candidate and notches up a good score. The physical examination for constables is tough compared to the written one,” said an officer.

Sleuths say Das ran the racket along with another former cop Bappa. Sleuths are also investigating into the involvement of Kolkata police officers in the racket.

According to the sleuths, this year 350 youths were recruited as constables after physical and written tests.

“It is possible that some of our men are involved since proper checking of the candidates was not done during the test. This allowed dummy candidates to appear on behalf of the real ones,” an officer of DD added.

“We will get into the bottom of this. We cannot rule out the fact that this racket may have been running for the last few years. We are scrutinising our ranks and a thorough investigation is being carried out,” said Gautam Mohan Chakraborty, commissioner of Kolkata police.