The police have registered a case against five BMC officials and fire brigade for allegedly taking Rs23 lakh from 61 candidates on the pretext of giving fire brigade jobs but handing out forged appointment letters with fake signatures.

According to the police, the complainant in the case is Ramesh Bhor, the divisional fire officer. As per Bhor, in the fire brigade department, 910 candidates were to be recruited for the posts of ‘fireman’ in 2023. An advertisement was published in various newspapers on December 29, 2022. The selection process was held from January 13, 2023 to February 14, 2023.

A total of 42,534 candidates had participated in the process and 18,481 candidates were found qualified, out of which a final list of 873 candidates was uploaded on the BMC website on May 11, 2023. After the list was announced, medical examinations of the said candidates were conducted in various civic hospitals. The department had called 550 candidates in the first batch and 323 candidates in the second batch for training. While 489 in the first batch completed training, 237 did so in the second bench; 10 are  still undergoing training. 

After the completion of the process, 277 candidates are waiting for 30% of the total vacancies for the post of firemen under the approval of the civic commissioner. The waiting list was prepared and was kept confidential and the validity of the list was for the next six months from the date of approval on May 8, 2023.

The list is currently defunct as its validity expired in November but the accused still took money from 61 candidates for the purported induction. A case was registered on Wednesday by the Agripada police under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.