Army recruitment: 30 more Nepali youths on ATS radar

LUCKNOW: Thirty more Nepal nationals are suspected to have been recruited to Gorkha regiments of Indian Army through forged documents posing a major threat to national security.

The revelation came during the interrogation of arrested mastermind behind a recruitment racket Chandra Bahadur Khatri by the UP ATS.

Now the ATS is on the lookout for these men who are posted at different location in the country.

Khatri, who himself is a Nepali national and was terminated from India army in 1991, was arrested on Monday night from Varanasi for recruiting several Nepali youths into the army at 39 Gorkha Training Centre, Varanasi on forged identity.

Inspector general (IG) of police, ATS, Asim Arun said Khatri, who was in 5-day police remand since wednesday, has revealed names of 30 Nepali youths who have been recruited to Indian army on forged identities. He said many more names have been found scribbled in his diary with details and money transaction done with him.

The IG said the army was verifying the identities of these 30 suspects after which action would be taken against them.

“This is a serious issue as it is not just a matter of fraudulent enrolment but also case of identity thefts. It is a major risk to national security as a person is recruited to the army on the basis of other persons’ identity,” he said. Arun said Khatri was arrested after a tip off about three Nepali nationals being recruited to Indian Army on forged identities. He said one of the army men, Vishnu Lal Bhattarai, who was allegedly recruited on the identity of a Jaunpur resident Dilip Giri, was arrested from Varanasi on Sunday. Two others, Shivansh Baliyan and Manoj Kumar Basnet, were also recruited on forged identities from the same centre and missing after taking leave for past few days, he added.

THREE MORE HELD FROM VARANASI

Three more members involved in recruiting Nepali youths on forged Indian identities were arrested from Varanasi on Friday.

The trio facilitated key operator Chandra Bahadur Khatri in getting prepared forged documents like Indian domicile certificates on fake identities, high school certificates and other identity proofs.

IG Asim Arun said the trio was identified as Ajay Kumar Singh, Nageshwar Maurya and Bablu Maurya, all residents of Varanasi. He said Ajay was the Khatri’s main facilitator and used to rope in Nageshwar and Bablu for preparing forged documents. He said Nageshwar also got original mark sheet papers of UP Board on which forged mark sheets were prepared.

He said the ATS was also probing the link from where Nageshwar used to get the original mark sheet papers.

Nageshwar has photocopying, printing and typing shop at Varanasi district court where he allegedly prepared all forged documents. Bablu Maurya alias Awadh Prakash worked at his shop. The duo charged ₹1500 per document in providing forged documents to Ajay.