Mumbai: The case rests on a single match. The iris scan of the man who appeared for four different candidates, the CBI told a special court, belonged to one person: a serving Central GST inspector.
On Monday, special judge P.B. Ghuge rejected the bail applications of Rajeev Ranjan, 42, a GST inspector posted in Kolkata, and Abhishek Kumar alias Roshan, 32. Both were arrested on October 8.
The CBI alleges that Ranjan impersonated four candidates — Manish Kumar, Amit Kumar, Rishabh Rai and Karan Kartik — at the preliminary and main examinations and during document verification, and appeared for two of them at interviews. The agency relied on photographs, thumb impressions and iris scans supplied by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. It told the court that Ranjan's iris scan matched the person who had appeared for all four.
Across the wider case, the CBI says 46 impersonators appeared on behalf of 135 candidates in IBPS examinations, helping them secure jobs in UCO Bank, Bihar Gramin Bank and Union Bank of India, among others.
The court recorded that the investigation covers 22 examinations conducted between 2020 and 2024, involving 135 candidates who allegedly got jobs through impersonation, and that the agency is still probing the role of other impersonators, selected candidates, public servants and private entities.
"The applicant does not deserve to be enlarged on bail at this stage of investigation," the judge said while rejecting Ranjan's plea, citing the gravity of the allegations and the stage of the probe. Kumar's application met the same view.
The defence had argued that Ranjan, as a government employee, needed prior sanction under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and that Kumar's continued custody would cost him an academic year with his final law examinations approaching. Both said they had cooperated and that the evidence was already with the agency. The court also rejected the argument that this was a third FIR on substantially the same facts, noting that the earlier Bhopal cases concerned candidates recruited by Madhya Pradesh Gramin Bank while this one covered 135 candidates across several states.
The case began with a complaint from IBPS, which flagged suspected impersonation after analysing recruitment examinations held between 2020 and 2024. The institute identified 257 suspected candidates, 180 of whom were already employed with public sector and regional rural banks.