PIB refutes youth allegation over AR involvement in fake recruitment

IMPHAL, March 20: Reacting to newspaper reports of a youth alleging irregularities in AR recruitment, a PIB press release has stated that the Assam Rifles treats the story and charges as false, meaningless and malicious.

"The allegation, though elaborate about the sequence of events, fails to substantiate the same with factual evidence. The details of the individual who asked the claimant to come to Hyderabad, the contact man who contacted him at Hyderabad and the names of the all the individuals apparently involved in the incident have not been mentioned in the article," the statement said.

It clarified that troops deployed in the ground are not involved in the conduct, execution and process of recruitment and said that the role of the Assam Rifles units is restricted to educating the youth about the avenues  available in the Armed Forces and Para Military Forces.

As stated by the claimant, his chest number is '5952' . However,

The PIB statement that the chest number '5952' which the youth ad referred to is as per the records held with the Army tallies with the number of the admission form for the Dimapur and Lokra Assam Rifles rally conducted from 25 September 2012 onwards for enrollment as Tradesman; ORL, EFS , Plumber, Electrician only.

Maintaining that no call letter was issued or provided by the Assam Rifles as alleged, the statement said that no advertisement was published or given for publication in 'Aza' as mentiined by the youth. "The individual stated that he was asked to come to Hyderabad wherein he proceeded under his own arrangements and contacted the suspected impersonators without confirming the authenticity of the call letter and without corroborating the same with either, Recruitment Office, Rangapahar or the nearest Army unit," it said.

It pointed out that the two cell phone numbers that the claimant is to have called are of Idea Cellular and both belong to the Hyderabad Circle with both numbers currently being switched off.  "There is no authorized “Army Defence Academy” in Hyderabad and additionally, no Army or Assam Rifles Recruitment Rally accepts candidates below the age of 18 years, whereas the claimant is purported to be a 17 year old student," it said.

It is also clarified that the Army or Assam Rifles do not assist in filling forms for Army Recruitment Rallies as they are all open rallies nor are any call letters issued by the Army / Assam Rifles.  The Assam Rifles has not been involved  in any direct recruitment of the individual as alleged and the entire story is fabricated and aimed at defaming the Security Forces, the release said.