Too old for UPSC: IRS officer used assumed identity to clear civil services examination

New Delhi: For almost 12 years now, one of the most influential IRS officers in the Central GST's East Zone office in Kolkata has been masquerading under an assumed name, after having allegedly fabricated educational certificates for his Union Public Service Commission exam.

While the IRS officer, currently a Deputy Commissioner-level official, was inducted into the Indian Revenue Services in 2008 as Navneet Kumar, according to a CBI FIR registered on Thursday, Kumar's real name is Rajesh Kumar Sharma.

The Central Bureau of Investigation booked the bureaucrat in a case of cheating and forgery, accusing him of fabricating college degrees and board exam certificates to appear for the UPSC exam in 2007.

According to the central agency, Rajesh Kumar Sharma had passed his 10th and 12th standard examinations in 1991 and 1993 respectively from the CBSE Board, and when he realised that he was too old to appear for the Civil Services Exam in 2007, he allegedly changed his name to Navneet Kumar, without changing his address or father's name.

The probe agency alleged that Kumar had to date not been able to submit a birth certificate or an Intermediate passing certificate to his department. According to Kumar's Civil Services Exam documents, he had cleared his 10th and 12th standard passing certificates from the Bihar Vidyalaya Pariksha Samiti.

As the CBI was verifying allegations against Kumar, it found that the Bihar Examination board was not co-operating with the agency to provide the IRS officer's required details.

The CBI found that the notice for the 2007-UPSC exam, issued on December 2006, clearly stated that candidates who had qualified for the Mains exam must produce proof of graduation at the time of document scrutiny in October-November 2007.

But the BA (Hons.) provisional certificate that Kumar had provided to examination authorities was dated December 2008, showing that he had appeared for the graduation exam in December 2007. Moreover, the CBI suspects that non-cooperation from officials of the Bihar Vidyalaya Pariksha Samiti might unravel some level of complicity from the exam board in the state, with roles of other public officials under the scanner for their purported role in facilitating Kumar's plans. The IRS officer is yet to be arrested.