BHUBANESHWAR: Police arrested two serving and a sacked employee of Indian Navy in Odisha’s Khurda on Thursday for allegedly extorting money from Agniveer aspirants during a recruitment drive at INS Chilka from April 7 to 19.
A candidate reported that someone added his contact number to a WhatsApp group where an unidentified member offered “favour and assistance” for selection as Agniveers. The candidate enquired about the possibility of increasing his written exam score. Upon receiving an affirmative response, he alerted INS Chilka authorities.
Following which, INS Chilka’s training correspondence officer lieutenant commander Adwitiya Singh filed a complaint at Balugaon police station on April 19.
“Investigation revealed the involvement of INS Chilka staff member Vinay Kumar Ray (38), and subsequent questioning led to two other suspects, Satyam Chahar (23), deployed at INS Kesari (Andaman & Nicobar), and sacked navy staffer Bhoosan (25),” SP (Khurda) Sagarika Nath said.
“They demanded amounts ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh from each candidate to assist them in clearing various recruitment stages through forgery,” he added. The accused threatened to nullify the appointments of candidates who refused to pay, prompting the Navy to review selected candidates’ documents for any discrepancies.
