Police to probe fake transfer scam in education dept

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 19

Creating chaos in the school education department, some ‘touts’ recently issued fake transfer orders of teaching staff after taking money from them.

Taken aback by the incident, the Director School Education immediately brought the matter to the notice of the Crime Branch of the police to identify the culprits who managed to get the seal and signature of a senior officer of the department. “We have referred the case to the Crime Branch for further investigation,” said Director, School Education, Anuradha Gupta, adding that the culprits would be brought to the book.

Sources said after lifting of the model code of conduct following the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections, some persons had been charging money from teachers, who are posted in far-flung areas, to bring them back to the places of their choices. “For the last one week, a number of transfer orders have been issued without the knowledge of the higher-ups in the education department,” a source said, adding that the senior officers got information of the orders only when someone posted these on the social media after joining the new place of posting.

Notably, the transfer orders were issued last week under the seal and signature of MH Mir, Special Secretary to the school education department, who retired on May 31 this year.

As these orders have created chaos in the education department, the Director issued a notice and termed all transfer orders as fake. “This office has come across a number of fake transfer orders apparently endorsed under the seal and signatures of MH Mir with dates June 4 and 7, 2019. The fact of the matter is that the officer under whose seal the orders were issued had attained superannuation on May 31, 2019,” read the Director’s notice.

She further impressed upon all the chief education officers of the Jammu division to advise all DDOs of their respective districts to remain vigilant, extra careful and ensure no such order was implemented in their respective areas. The officials were directed to immediately share information about any transfer order with the Director.