look news india
A very shocking and big scam has come to light regarding recruitment in government and public sector banks across the country. Hundreds of suspected officers, who got jobs fraudulently by breaking into the examination system of Banking Personnel Selection Institute i.e. IBPS, have now come under the target of the Central Bureau of Investigation i.e. CBI. By thoroughly matching modern biometric technology and five-year-old iris scans (scans of the irises), the investigating agencies have identified 257 such suspicious candidates, who passed the examination by using ‘dummy candidates’ in place of real candidates and got appointment to big posts in banks. The documents presented by CBI in the special court of Mumbai have created a stir in the banking sector.
Common Recruitment Process is conducted by IBPS for recruitment of officers and clerks in Public Sector Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). In the year 2025, when the institute started an internal review of the transparency and fairness of the recruitment process, the digital records of lakhs of candidates who appeared between the last five years i.e. 2020 to 2024 were scrutinized. During investigation, technical experts found that at the time of online application, photographs of real candidates and solvers appearing in the examination were morphed together to create a new face. After this, the same dummy candidates appeared for the written examination, main examination, interview and even the biometric verification before joining the bank. When the final selection and appointment letter was released, the real person who had not given even a single stage of the examination himself would go to the bank and join the duty.
When IBPS directed different banks to re-verify the biometrics of suspicious employees, shocking figures came to light. During investigation, serious mismatch was found in the biometrics of a total of 257 suspects. Of these, there were 180 people who were working as officers and employees in various nationalized banks of the country and were drawing salaries. Further, an in-depth investigation of the entire recruitment syndicate revealed a network of 54 professional ‘dummy examinees’, who were appearing in the examination repeatedly in place of more than one candidate and had so far helped at least 172 ineligible people get jobs in the banks. Considering the seriousness of the matter, IBPS banned all these suspects for life and issued instructions to the concerned banks for strict dismissal and legal action under service rules.
Taking over the investigation of this national level scam, CBI on August 20 registered a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating and impersonation against 135 named accused. The investigating agency has recently arrested four main accused and presented them in the special court of Mumbai. CBI special public prosecutor Gaurav Srivastava told the court that accused Vishwa Bhaskar had appeared for the examination in place of two candidates named Sanjeev Kumar Bharti and Santosh Kumar Bharti. Whereas accused Abhishek Kumar appeared as Harimohan Meena and Manish Kumar appeared as Amit Kumar. When the iris scans of the eyes of these arrested accused were matched with the digital biometric data taken during the 2020-2024 examination, it matched completely. Another key accused, Rajeev Ranjan, who was active as a fake candidate in several stages of the examination during 2020 and 2021, has also been sent to CBI custody by the court.
CBI has clarified before the court that this is not a matter limited to only a few individuals, but an inter-state organized solver gang is active behind it, whose links are connected to the coaching centers and examination centers of many states. The investigating agency is continuously raiding the possible hideouts of real candidates and dummy examinees in various cities of the country. 180 people who have obtained jobs in banks on the basis of fraud have been identified and legal action is being taken against them. CBI believes that as the investigation progresses, more brokers, solver gang leaders and illegally appointed employees involved in this racket will be arrested.