Prime accused in teachers’ recruitment racket arrested

LUCKNOW :The prime accused in teachers’ recruitment scam in basic education department, Alok Upadhyaya, landed in UP Special Task Force (STF) net on Saturday after remaining elusive for around six months. The STF team arrested him outside Mathura bus stop after getting a tip-off about his movement and specific location.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP) of STF Abhishek Singh said Upadhyaya, who himself was posted as assistant teacher in government primary school in Matt, Mathura, was reportedly the kingpin of the racket of illegally facilitating youths to get job of teachers in government colleges after issuing fake appointment letters. He said Upadhyaya and his other aides had facilitated recruitment of many teachers fraudulently in Mathura region.

The SSP said Upadhyaya’s name surfaced in the racket after the arrest of 16 people involved in the scam which included 9 government teachers along with a clerk and a computer operator of Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) office in Mathura on June 19. He said one more member of the same gang was also arrested on July 24 but Upadhyaya remained elusive since then.

He said Upadhyaya also floated a teacher’s organisation United Teachers Association (UTA) and managed to wield a clout by posing as the president of the same organisation.

He said the accused even created his terror by laying trap against some clerical staff members of basic education department and got them arrested through anti-corruption agencies in the past.

The SSP said a senior clerk of BSA office in Mathura, who was also arrested in the similar allegations earlier in June, had revealed he and Upadhyaya with help of some agents, identified as Chetan, Subodh, Ravindra, Pushpendra, used to approach unemployed youths and got them recruited as teachers through fraudulent means after collecting hefty amount from them.

He said the clerk had claimed that so far they have got inducted over 100 fake appointments and recruited youths were working in different schools.

He said the four agents and eleven others who got recruited with the help of fraudulent means like by using fake certificates were also arrested. Further investigations are on in this regard after registering a case with the Kotwali police station in Mathura.