JODHPUR: Three doctors of the Border Security Force (BSF), part of a three-member review board to receive appeals from disqualified candidates, have been booked for corruption and cheating by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on charges that they fudged the weight of five candidates during a review.
In two cases, the three doctors reduced the weight of the candidates by 10kg or more. In the other three instances, the difference in weight was between 4.4 and 6.6kg, according to the CBI.
HT has reviewed a copy of the FIR registered on March 28.
BSF additional director general (ADG) PV Rama Shastry first flagged the discrepancy. Shastry was the chairman of the interview board set up for the recruitment of medical officers for the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) at Jodhpur during March 2-9, 2022 and spotted the sharp reduction in weight.
In his report, Shastry said: “… it has come to notice that certain overweight candidates who were found unfit by the Medical Examination Test Board, have been subsequently found fit by the Review Medical Examination board within 3 days after recording a significant reduction in weight which prima facie appeared unusual”.
The candidates were called back and ordered to appear for a fresh test, using the weighing machines that had been used by the review board as well. It turned out that none of the four candidates – the first candidate didn’t turn up – had lost any weight.
“From the above… it is clear that the review medical examination board recorded significantly reduced weights (just below the threshhold of 25 BMI [Body Mass Index]),” he said in a communication to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, which was designated as the nodal force for the recruitment of medical officers of the rank of assistant commandants.
The documents that are part of the FIR identified the three BSF officers as Dr SK Jha, Dr Mrinal Hazarika and Dr.Bani Saikia Chetia. The FIR also names the five candidates.
To be sure, BSF informed CBI about the case on March 22, 2022, but it took a year to register the case on account of the law that required the federal agency to get sanction from the Rajasthan government and the Union home ministry before starting the investigation