UP: Army soldier arrested for duping Agniveer aspirants in Meerut

The accused was had allegedly made deals with four Agniveer aspirants on the pretext of recruitment and was nabbed by Meerut unit of UP STF following inputs by Military Intelligence.

Meerut: The Meerut unit of UP STF on Tuesday arrested an army soldier for allegedly duping aspirants in the name of Agniveer recruitment, officials said. The accused Naresh, son of Surajpal, a resident of village Masouta in district Ghaziabad, was arrested by the Meerut STF from the police station Sadar Bazar area following inputs by Military Intelligence.

Brijesh Kumar Singh, Additional Superintendent of Police of STF Meerut said that an input was received from Military Intelligence that some elements are engaged in recovering huge amounts of money from aspirants in Agniveer recruitment in Army. He informed that the accused demanded Rs 5 lakhs from the aspirants on the pretext of recruitment in the Agniveer scheme launched earlier this year by the government for recruitment into military services. He further added that three members of the gang are still absconding.

On the instructions of SP STF Kuldeep Narayan, the STF team arrested the accused while a search is going on for his accomplices. Reports said that following the intelligence inputs, an aspirant was identified who was approached by the accused Naresh promising him to clear his re-medicals at Military Hospital Meerut in lieu of Rs 5 lakh.

The accused had made a deal with four aspirants and had taken Rs 2.5 lakh from a fifth aspirant, reports said. Police have registered a case under relevant sections of law against the accused.