Mumbai: CBI busted a multi-state impersonation and cheating network operating in banking exams and arrested a CGST inspector from Kolkata and three others from Delhi and Haryana on Thursday. CBI alleged that the four arrested accused were part of a gang that appeared as dummy candidates for bank recruitment exams and subsequent interviews conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection ( IBPS ).




IBPS is an autonomous body created to assist organisations in selection of personnel at various levels. The gang operated across Delhi, Bihar, Haryana and West Bengal, CBI alleged.




Following an FIR registered on a complaint filed by IBPS, the CBI Special Task Branch Mumbai executed coordinated multi-state raids and arrested the four alleged accused. The agency said the arrested accused allegedly “infiltrated multiple stages of the selection process, including written examinations and interviews, by physically appearing in place of the actual candidates”. CBI will produce them before a court in Mumbai on Friday for their regular remand.




IBPS had identified about 54 impersonators who appeared for two or more candidates, helping 172 secure bank jobs illegally. They also identified another eight impersonators who appeared for single candidates, helping eight to secure banking jobs. IBPS, in the complaint, alleged that 180 candidates are presently working in various public sector banks across India.




IBPS division head of research & development department at Thakur Complex in Kandivli, in the complaint, alleged that while undertaking data analysis, photo comparison and biometric matching of candidates in examinations conducted for five years (2020-24), a total of 257 suspects among selected candidates were flagged for use of unfair means (impersonation).




Earlier, CBI Bhopal had registered two similar cases involving 41 candidates who had indulged in wrongdoing in examinations in Madhya Pradesh, of whom 39 candidates are part of the list of 180 candidates flagged by the IBPS’s Kandivli office. In total, IBPS said that 45 candidates were investigated by the Bhopal unit of the CBI, and it requested CBI Mumbai to investigate the remaining 135 candidates who secured jobs fraudulently.