Former chief of Maharashtra council of exams arrested for cheating job aspirants

The Pune City police on Monday arrested former commissioner of the Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSEC) Shailaja Darade, who is now under suspension, in a multi- crore teacher recruitment scam.DCP (zone 5) Vikrant Deshmukh confirmed that Shailaja was arrested on Monday. Assistant police inspector Chetan Thorbole, who is investigating the case said, “Further investigation is on. Accused Shailaja Darade would be produced before a court on Tuesday.”

Popat Suryavanshi, a 50-year-old teacher residing in Sangli’s Atpadi, registered a complaint in the case at the Hadapsar police station in February this year. Police had booked Shailaja as well as her brother Dadasaheb Darade under Sections 34 (common intention), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC. Popat accused  Darade and her brother of duping him of Rs. 27 lakh by promising teachers’ jobs in the education department to his two sisters-in-law. “At the time of registration of this complaint, Suryavanshi had submitted a list of 44 job aspirants claiming that they too were cheated by the duo. Later these aspirants approached us with their complaints. We recorded their statements,” Thorbole said.

The Darades had lured aspirants with offers of jobs in state departments. They collected varied amounts from the aspirants but failed to deliver. The incident came to light after Suryavanshi’s complaint, he said. On August 22, 2020, Darade through her lawyer released a public notice in a local language paper declaring that she had broken all ties with her brother after learning that he was misusing their relations to make money. The notice also cautioned people against entering into any financial transactions with her brother in her name as such transaction won’t be binding on her and she won’t be responsible for any financial loss arising from the same.