Railway job aspirant removes thumb skin and puts it on friend’s hand to fool biometrics
Government job has been a priority for Indians for decades now. It is a matter of pride and lifetime financial security for the men and women of the country. However, this has also pushed a lot of aspirant to take several desperate measures, just like the Bihar-based man who removed his thumb skin and pasted it on his friend’s thumb to fool biometrics.
Yes, you read it right. A railway job candidate from Munger district removed his thumb skin using a hot pan and pasted it on his friend’s thumb. He did so with a hope that the latter will clear the biometric verification and appear for the recruitment exam at his place.
However, their plan failed when the exam supervisor sprayed sanitiser on the proxy’s hand and the skin fell off before the test on August 22 in Gujarat’s Vadodara city.
On Wednesday, the Vadodara police arrested the candidate Manish Kumar and his proxy Rajyaguru Gupta for cheating and forgery, said Additional Commissioner of Police S M Varotariya.
Reportedly, both the victim are in their mid-20s and have cleared Class 12 exam in the past.
As per the FIR registered at Vadodara’s Laxmipura police station, a Railways-authorised private company arranged a recruitment test for railway ‘D’ group vacancies on August 22. More than 600 candidates appeared for the test at a building in Laxmipura area.
Varotariya said, “To prevent any sort of cheating, all the candidates were required to give their thumb impression, which was then matched with their Aadhaar data through a biometric device before the test. At that time, the device failed to register the thumb impression of a candidate named Manish Kumar despite repeated attempts.”
Seeing the candidate trying to hide his left hand by repeatedly putting it in his pant pocket, the supervisor grew suspicious. But when the examiner sprayed sanitiser on his left thumb, the skin on it fell off, the official added.
The agency called the police as soon as the fabrication was caught, and lodged a complaint under Indian Penal Code Sections 465 (forgery), 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
According to the person who was caught at the scene, his real name was Rajyaguru Gupta and he came to appear the exam on behalf of his friend Manish Kumar. Since, he was good in studies, Manish came up with the idea of sending Rajyaguru for the recruitment test he applied for, by forging identity.
The official said, A day before the test, Kumar put his left thumb on a hot cooking pan which created a blister on it. Kumar removed the skin using a blade and pasted it on Gupta’s left thumb, as he knew that biometric verification will be done at the exam centre to ascertain the real identity.”
Both the accused have been arrested, said police.