Landing a sweeper's job in Mumbai is not easy, aspirants tackle demands for sexual favours, money

Mumbai: In a shocking revelation, a report on Friday highlighted a huge recruitment scam in the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

A news report published in Mid-Day said that several BMC employees grabbed the sweeper's job by representing themselves as a family member of either dead or retired staffer. As a result, a number of deserving candidates were deprived of jobs in the municipal corporation.

When the newspaper tried to dig in for more facts on the 'scam', it found out that one widow of a BMC employee was asked for sexual favours or pay Rs 10 lakh in return to get the job, which was her right.

Another lady, Harsha Heliya, found out that some other people have been given jobs by forging documents in her family member's name, who died long ago.

She told the newspaper that almost her entire family is employed at the BMC. However, when her uncle died in 1994, her cousin and her brother applied for the job, but they were denied the opportunity.

To their apathy, they later found out that their deceased uncle was still `alive` and `working`. The family learnt that the uncle's identity was being used by Nirmala Jogadia, the wife of Kunal Jogadia.

The Crime Branch, investigating the recruitment, have arrested Kunal Jogadia.

Heliya further revealed that she was told that her grandmother (Maghubai) had voluntarily said that she didn't want any pension or a job for any of her family members on compassionate ground, but to their shocker, somebody had used Maghubai's name and was also drawing salary.

Heliya also said that when they were trying to investigate more, they received death threats and on some occasions, even goons harassed them.

The Crime Branch have arrested five people in connection with the case. Out of the 5, one has been identified as the assistant chief supervisor of the D- ward, Devji Premji Rathod.

Rathod is accused of forging the documents and getting it signed by his superiors. He used to get Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 for passing each file.

Mid-Day quoted a Crime Branch officer as saying: “Rathod would claim that the documents had been verified and submit them to his superiors for signature.”

The investigating officers have also found that the racketeers had even forged the police verification documents.