Three held for fake forest job offers...

TT, Jalpaiguri: The special task force of the Bengal forest department has caught three persons who were allegedly running a racket in north Bengal to collect money with offer of jobs in the department.

On Wednesday, Sanjay Dutta, the range officer of Belakoba under Baikunthapur forest division, who heads the task force, got a tip-off that some people were asking for money from unemployed youths for jobs.

"We acted on the tip-off and arrested three of them. There are some more members in the racket and searches are on to arrest them. We could recover a number of fake documents like letterheads of our department, stamps and seals," said Dutta.

The arrested are Subham Kumar Dhali, a resident of Siliguri, Pradip Kumar Ghosh, who is from Dumdum in Calcutta and Bikram Kumar Singha who hails from Malda.

The task force could also seize Rs 66,000 from the trio. Sources said a youth from Jalpaiguri district had filed a complaint with the task force that members of a racket had taken Rs 66,000 from him in return for a job in the forest department.

"There was information that the racket was issuing appointment letters bearing signatures of the additional chief secretary of the department and the head of the forest force," said a senior forester.

Among the seized fake documents are appointment letters carrying forged signature of Chandan Sinha, the principal secretary of the forest department and medical certificates.

"During preliminary interrogation, they have admitted that some more persons from Calcutta, Malda and Siliguri are associated with the racket. All three have been handed over to Rajganj police in Jalpaiguri district," said Dutta.