In the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), a major recruitment fraud came to light on the month of September, involving the health department and the 2016 hiring of X-ray technicians. Investigators now allege that under the name Arpit Singh (son of Anil Kumar Singh) multiple individuals secured full-time jobs across six districts, drawing salaries simultaneously for nearly nine years.
In early 2016, the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC) conducted recruitment for around 403 posts of X-ray technicians. The name Arpit Singh appeared in the merit list at serial number 80.
Subsequently, six different individuals, each using the “Arpit Singh” identity, with the same father’s name and date of birth but different Aadhaar numbers and minor differences in addresses reportedly secured jobs in the districts of Balrampur, Farrukhabad, Rampur, Banda, Amroha and Shamli.
Over the course of roughly nine years (2016-2025), these impostors drew salaries from the state exchequer, with estimated losses exceeding ₹4.5 crore (≈ US $540,000) to the health department.
How this was possible:
Duplicate or forged documents including multiple Aadhaar IDs, with the same parental name and birth-date but different addresses.
Multiple employee codes activated across districts, with poor cross-district verification.
A lack of integrated HR systems or real-time audits enabled the fraud to persist for years
The legitimate “first” Arpit Singh is reported as the son of Anil Kumar Singh from Agra district.
The fraud scheme involved postings across six districts — Balrampur, Farrukhabad, Rampur, Banda, Amroha and Shamli — within UP's Health Department.
Four of the six impostors are reported to have absconded following the exposure.
The recruitment took place in 2016, but detection only occurred in early 2025 when the health department began digitising its records and cross-checked the HR portal.
The root reasons for the lapse include weak identity verification, lack of inter-district coordination, and absence of a centralised employee database. The scam persisted undetected because each district treated its recruits locally without real-time linkage to others.
An FIR has been lodged at Wazirganj police station in Lucknow under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including cheating by impersonation (419), forgery of valuable security (467), and using forged documents (471).
The posts held under the fraudulent identity are now likely to be declared vacant and will be subject to fresh recruitment drives. Recovery of the mis-drawn salaries remains a major challenge for the department.
The state government, led by Yogi Adityanath, has directed a broader review of recruitment processes and verification systems in public health staffing.
(Rh/TL)