Pune: Many youngsters from drought-prone Marathwada region allegedly secured jobs in various state govt departments by submitting fake sports certificates, including those for dragon boat competitions, prompting the city police to launch an investigation into the matter.“We have initiated our probe after receiving a complaint application. We have already gathered some information on the fake dragon boat competitions, and further investigation is underway,” additional commissioner of police (crime) Tejaswi Satpute said on Wednesday.Satpute added, “These certificates were issued over the last few years, and many of these fake certificate holders have obtained state govt jobs.”A senior police officer from Pune city crime branch told TOI, “The sport requires large water bodies, such as those found in the backwaters of Kerala, Indonesia, and other places. However, Marathwada and other parts of the state do not have such large water bodies. Many of these districts have consistently faced drought conditions. Despite this, these ‘young sportspersons’ not only managed to learn the sport but also participated in competitions.”“We have sought details of these sports certificates from the State Department of Sports and Youth Services and other concerned authorities. Their reply is awaited,” a crime branch officer said.“We have also requested information on the infrastructure of dragon boat facilities at the state, district, and taluka levels from the authorities, alongside details of the locations where these competitions were supposedly conducted,” the officer added.“We suspect that many youngsters were issued certificates for dragon boat, which is a team event, and over 1,000 people have secured jobs using them. A large number of certificates were distributed because a single boat requires a minimum of 20 team members,” the officer said.“Many of these 1,500 certificate holders have managed to secure govt jobs over the last few years,” the officer said.Police are already probing a similar racket involving Kurash certificates, in which numerous youngsters allegedly secured jobs by submitting fake credentials for the martial arts sport.The investigation into the Kurash racket revealed that the scam had spread across the state. Crime branch officials found that office-bearers of the Maharashtra State Kurash Association had distributed over 1,000 fake certificates since 2016.Police have now begun verifying how many people secured jobs in various state govt departments using these certificates and how many candidates availed themselves of the sports quota across Maharashtra.Police have already arrested two office-bearers of the Kurash association. “Investigation revealed that Kurash certificates were issued to individuals who never actually participated in the competitions, falsely projecting them as sportspersons. These certificates were then used in recruitment processes for various state govt departments, where a 5% reservation is provided for sportspersons,” the police said.“So far, we have gathered information that around 1,000 such fake certificates were issued by the suspects to provide an undue advantage under this reservation,” the police added.
