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In UP hunt for ‘Anamika Shuklas’, two of those held share one story: Poverty, desire for govt job

A resident of Gonda, 27-year-old Shukla says she got to know through the media that her name was caught up in an appointment scam.

In UP hunt for ‘Anamika Shuklas’, two of those held share one story: Poverty, desire for govt job Mahipal Jatav, father of Supriya, one of the two held for posing as Anamika Shukla

AS POLICE look for the several ‘Anamika Shuklas’ who got hired as teachers in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) across Uttar Pradesh using fraud documents, two of those they have arrested have one thing in common: both were desperate for a job.

Supriya Jatav, 22, is the only graduate in her family, while Anita Devi, 35, had been struggling to raise her six-year-old son since her husband’s death. On Sunday evening, police arrested a third woman, Babli Yadav, who posed as Anamika Shukla. They are collecting details about her, including her claim that her sister-in-law, Sarita Yadav, had got a KGBV posting too, as Anamika Shukla.

Meanwhile, the real Anamika Shukla, from Gonda, whose papers were faked, never joined duty at the KGBV where she was hired, as she had just delivered a child. She is now counting on a private school job to support her family.

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Read| Anamika Shukla Fraud row: Documents of all school teachers to be checked, STF to probe larger nexus

The UP Police has established that documents of the Anamika Shukla of Gonda had been used in schools across nine districts. In three districts, the appointed ‘Anamika Shukla’ did not join or remained absent, but in six, they did.

Supriya Jatav

Festive offer

A labourer, Supriya’s father Mahipal Jatav says the family, belonging to Kaimganj in Farrukhabad district, put everything into her education. Supriya is the eldest of four siblings. “She is the only one to have studied so much, she worked very hard,” Jatav says.

But, after graduating from a government college in Farrukhabad, Supriya kept waiting for a job.

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In early 2018, Pushpendra reportedly approached the family. “It was a dream come true, a teacher’s job is respected,” says Jatav.

Applicants need a B.Ed degree and to have cleared the Teachers’ Eligibility Test for a KGBV posting, earning Rs 22,000 a month.

Jatav says they agreed to give Pushpendra Rs 1.5 lakh for the papers. “He took Rs 50,000, with Rs 1 lakh to be paid in instalments. I sold one of our two buffaloes.”

Pushpendra reportedly told them, “For one year, Supriya would work as Anamika Shukla, and after that, she can work as herself.”

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In August 2018, Supriya was hired at the KGBV in Kasganj.

Read| Recruitment of 69,000 teachers: UP High Court lifts stay order

On June 6, Supriya was arrested when she came to the school to resign and collect her dues. ASP Pavitra Kumar Tripathi said, “After media reports about the racket, she was advised by Pushpendra to resign.”

Tripathi said that Supriya gave the names of Pushpendra and Jaswant, whom police believe to be the masterminds.

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“The brothers knew someone who knew Supriya’s family, and that is how they contacted her.”
Kasganj Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) Anjali Agarwal said Supriya was a good teacher. “We always received positive reports about her.”

Anita Devi

An only parent since her husband died in an accident in 2017, Anita had been facing financial difficulties.
Pushpendra allegedly approached her at a bus-stop in Mainpuri, where she lives, offering to get her a job at a KGBV in Ambedkarnagar. Anita has told police that while she did not know Pushpendra, she agreed as she was desperate.

She joined the KGBV in Alapur, Ambedkarnagar, in March 2019.

Anita was arrested on June 12. Ambedkarnagar SP Alok Priyadarshi said, “Pushpendra got an account opened in her name. The salary would come to the account, and he would give Anita Devi Rs 10,000 from the Rs 22,000 salary.”

Anamika Shukla

A resident of Gonda, 27-year-old Shukla says she got to know through the media that her name was caught up in an appointment scam. On June 9, she went to Gonda BSA Indrajit Prajapati’s office to submit her original documents and lodge a police complaint.

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Her husband Durgesh told The Indian Express that Anamika wanted to join the IAS or IPS. But, after marriage in 2017 and a first child, she gave up that ambition, and decided to take up a job as a teacher. The family needed the money as Durgesh is unemployed.

When the offer came for a science teacher’s job at the Gonda KGBV though, Shukla could not appear for counselling as she had just had her second baby. “On Friday, she got an appointment letter from a private school,” Durgesh said.
BSA Prajapati said he had checked the documents Shukla submitted on June 9. “They are genuine.”
Pushpendra, Jaswant

It was not the first time the two brothers — Pushpendra, 33, and Jaswant, 42 – natives of Mainpuri, may have pulled off fake identity in a UP government school.

According to Kasganj ASP Tripathi, Jaswant had been working as a headmaster at a government school in Kannauj since 2015 as ‘Vibhav Kumar’, drawing Rs 55,000. Police don’t think anyone by the name of Vibhav Kumar exists.

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While Jaswant was held on June 8, Pushpendra is absconding. ASP Tripathi said, “it seems Pushpendra and Jaswant got more than 20 teachers recruited”.

Talking about Sunday’s arrest from Bijauli area in the city, Aligarh SP (Crime) Arvind Kumar said Babli Yadav, who is around 30, was working as ‘Anamika Shukla’ at a KGBV in a village in Aligarh since October 2019. “She named Ballu Yadav, Rajbeti and Pushpendra as having prepared fake papers to get her the KGBV posting, for Rs 3 lakh.”

A native of Kanpur Dehat, Babli has a two-year-old son. Police said they were checking her claims about sister-in-law Sarita having got a job similarly, in Prayagraj.

First uploaded on: 15-06-2020 at 03:30 IST
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