GMCH-32 nursing officers’ recruitment: Weight difference of candidate, impersonator raised the first red flag

It was the huge difference in the weights of the candidate and his alleged impersonator in the written test of the nursing officers’ recruitment exam at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, held in August last year, that first raised suspicion.

During the verification process after recruitment of the nursing officers, GMCH officials had noticed discrepancies in the photograph and signatures of one candidate, Rekhraj, 30, of Rajasthan.

The person appeared to be different from the photograph on the application form, and the signature submitted at the time of filling the application also did not match the one on the admit card. There was also a significant difference in the facial features of the candidate who took the test and the one who showed up to join as a nursing officer.

“While Rekhraj weighed 80kg, his impersonator weighed around 50kg. The difference in their photographs exposed them. When Rekhraj got a whiff of this, he fled. After this, GMCH-32 authorities started further scrutiny and police registered a case against the other accused too,” an officer revealed.

To check the possibility of more such cases, GMCH authorities had constituted a six-member scrutiny committee, headed by a senior professor, and comprising officials from the nursing department, recruitment branch and IT department, to collect details of all nursing officers selected on the basis of the written test.

As per hospital authorities, fingerprints and signatures were taken in the presence of the committee to compare them with the data collected during recruitment. But five candidates did not appear before the committee and went on medical leave and later resigned with a 24-hour notice.

Rekhraj was one of the candidates who did not join.

Police have so far booked 16 accused, including eight candidates and their eight impersonators, in the case.

On April 19, authorities at GMCH, Sector 32, had sought criminal proceedings against six new hires, following which a case was registered at the Sector 34 police station on April 20.

GMCH had issued advertisements for recruitment of 182 nursing officers in December 2021. A total of 10,594 candidates had appeared for the test at 39 centres on August 28,2022.

Middleman nabbed from Jodhpur

Police on Thursday arrested the man who acted as a middleman between the candidate Rekhraj and impersonator Joginder Kumar, 29, a nursing assistant at a hospital in Rajasthan.

The accused, identified as Mukesh of Jodhpur, 29, according to the police was arrested from his hometown.

According to the police, Joginder had appeared in the written test in place of Rekhraj. Both were arrested from Rajasthan.

Mukesh had sought ?10 lakh from Rekhraj. But as Rekhraj did not join the hospital, Mukesh couldn’t collect the money from him.

“Both Joginder and Rekhraj didn’t know each other. Mukesh got them in touch. Mukul sought ?10 lakh from Rekhraj in lieu of getting him a job in GMCH-32 following which he sent Joginder to take the exam for Rekhraj,” an officer said.