PHED engr held for using forged MTech degree to get job

Jaipur: The Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) Thursday arrested a junior engineer (JEN) posted with the public health engineering department (PHED) after an investigation found that he allegedly used a forged MTech degree in recruitment-related applications and to secure employment.

Additional director general of police (SOG) Vishal Bansal identified the accused as Durgashankar Menaria, a resident of Bhinder in Udaipur district, and currently posted as a JEN with PHED.

Bansal said the accused allegedly used a fake MTech degree purportedly issued by a university in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, and investigators are probing how he obtained the forged certificate and whether a larger network of middlemen and university insiders was involved.

The case stems from a 2018-19 recruitment process conducted by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) for the posts of Group Instructor, Surveyor and Assistant Apprenticeship Adviser Grade-II. Menaria had uploaded an MTech degree in Electrical Power Systems along with his application and was subsequently selected after clearing the written examination and interview.

The fraud surfaced when the Directorate of Technical Education initiated verification of his educational documents. After the degree could not be authenticated, the department lodged a complaint with SOG.

Investigators said verification conducted with the university revealed that no MTech degree had been issued in Menaria’s name and that the document submitted by him was forged.

During questioning, SOG also found that Menaria allegedly used the same degree to secure employment as an assistant technical officer at Madhav University, Pindwara, between 2015 and 2020 and later relied on that experience certificate in subsequent applications.

Police have arrested Menaria under IPC sections related to cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. SOG said it is now verifying his BTech and other educational qualifications while probing the source of the forged degree.