CBI books excise official for submitting fake caste certificate during appointment

Nearly 32 years after joining the Central Excise Department through the staff selection commission, the CBI has booked an officer for allegedly furnishing a forged caste certificate with his application form, officials said Tuesday. The agency initiated an FIR after a preliminary enquiry was registered in December last year, they said.

The case pertains to Manoi Kumar, who joined the service as an upper division clerk through a 1987-advertisement issued by the staff selection commission (SSC), they said. The inquiry, initiated nearly 32 years after his induction into the department, showed that Kumar, a resident of Bhagalpur in Bihar, had submitted incorrect information to get the benefit of reservation in scheduled caste category.

It is alleged that he dishonestly and fraudulently managed to get himself appointed as an upper division clerk in the Central Excise Department and misled others to believe that he belongs to the scheduled caste category by providing a fake caste certificate, the officials said. The caste certificate used by Kumar with his application form was "duly verified from the Bhagalpur District Welfare office" and this revealed that "the same is fake and forged and was never been issued from the said office", according to the FIR.

It said the inquiry, further, exposed a deep rooted criminal conspiracy in the submission of the forged caste certificate, involving Kumar and unidentified public servants, as his appointment was not possible without their active connivance. "There are several lapses on part of the SSC in verifying the caste certificate as well as the SSC application form which were overlooked by the then officials of the SSC, making them part of the conspiracy," the FIR alleged.

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