BHOPAL: Paliganj town – 50 km from the Bihar capital – is in news nearly a thousand km away in Madhya Pradesh, thanks to one of its government school teachers, who has emerged as the key solver of an inter-state Aadhaar ID manipulation-enabled examination racket, which helped candidates from the Gwalior-Chambal region crack the 2023 MP Police Constable Recruitment Exam.Ranjan Kumar Gupta, a school teacher from Paliganj appeared in place of ten candidates, including one of the merit holders of the exam who secured 87 out of 100 marks.Besides Gupta, who is now in police custody in MP’s Sheopur district, at least five more solvers from the same eastern state also appeared through the same modus operandi for dozens of other candidates in MP, in return for Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh subject to passing of the candidate.Another solver from Bihar’s Gaya district, Amrendra Singh ‘Bahubali’ appeared for eight candidates, for Rs 1 lakh each. He is now in police custody in Alirajpur district, following the arrest of Ramrup Gurjar, the candidate from MP’s Gwalior-Chambal region who managed to clear the written test by making Amrendra appear in his place and subsequently cracked the 2024 physical proficiency test on his own, to finally be selected for the constable’s job.“The solvers from Bihar travelled between Patna and MP by air on tickets booked by the examination’s main racket’s mastermind Amitabh Rawat and aides in Gwalior-Chambal region. They were comforted in big hotels and travelled to examination centres across MP in snazzy cars. The racket mastermind and aides also took special care of the fun and frolic demanded by the solvers from Bihar during their stay in MP ,” a police officer forming a key part of the ongoing probe told this newspaper.Eyeing to earn big (around `40 lakh after appearing for ten candidates) Ranjan now feels cheated by the mastermind of the racket – Morena district-based Amitabh Rawat – who is also a school teacher, and a village sarpanch’s husband.Carrying a Rs 10,000 reward on his arrest, Rawat, who is now on the run, made Ranjan appear for ten candidates, but paid him just Rs 4 lakh.“Ranjan, however, is confident that he wouldn’t have failed in getting less than 6-7 candidates pass the 2023 written test to qualify for the 2024 physical proficiency test. The candidates for whom he appeared, included at least three close relatives of the racket’s mastermind Amitabh Rawat. Just like us, Ranjan too is keenly awaiting Rawat’s arrest, but for different reasons,” the police officer confided.While Rawat , who is a Meena caste strongman in Morena, ran the biggest racket, smaller rackets run by some other caste strongmen (including Thakurs and Gurjars) were also active in other districts of the same northern MP region.
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