Andhra Pradesh   

Army recruitment racket busted, "Arjuna awardee" arrested

Staff Reporter

Fake stamps of senior Army personnel across the country seized

HYDERABAD: An inter-State Army recruitment racket, operating from Hyderabad and run by a former Army officer, who claims he is an Arjuna Award winner, was busted here on Tuesday in a joint operation by the Military Intelligence and the Alwal police.

The police arrested the kingpin, retired Subedar Major and Honorary Captain A.V.R. Naidu, after a raid on his residence in Balaji Nagar on Tuesday. Fake stamps of several commanding officers and other senior personnel of various Army regiments and military units across the country were seized from his possession along with a number of forged certificates.

Certificates forged?

Two persons, suspected to be agents of Naidu, were also taken into custody. Though Naidu produced a certificate purportedly presented by former President R. Venkataraman conferring on him the Arjuna Award for boxing, the police suspect even that certificate was forged.

The deals came out on Monday during the ongoing enrolment drive at the AOC Centre here. Army officers got suspicious about certificates produced by some boys from Karnataka and Rajasthan, following which two Rajasthanis and one Kannadiga were handed over to the Karkhana police. Meanwhile the Military Intelligence, based on reports it received, stepped in and questioned a few other persons this morning.

Money deals

Four youngsters each from Kerala and Tamil Nadu and one from Visakhapatnam told the Intelligence officers and police that they had paid a minimum of Rs. 50,000 each to Naidu, who had promised them to help them get through the selection process.

While the Kerala boys had paid through "agents" from their own villages, the Tamilians said they had paid the amount directly to Naidu.

According to the youngsters, who have lodged a complaint with the Alwal police, some 30 boys were staying at Naidu's residence for the recruitment drive. Most of them were from Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, indicating that Naidu's network stretched across several States. "All of them had paid above Rs.50,000, some said they had paid Rs.1 lakh too," one of the boys said.

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