The Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday arrested a teacher who allegedly worked at 25 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya schools for more than a year and earned Rs 1 crore, India Today reported.
Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya is a setup where girls from weaker sections of the society study, according to the Times of India. Every block in the state’s districts has one such school, and teachers are appointed on contract basis with a salary of over Rs 30,000 every month.
The accused, a full-time science teacher, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj district. She was identified as Anamika Shukla, some reports said. But the police said that though she used the name of Anamika Shukla to get the job, her real name is Priya.
The incident came to light when a database of teachers was being created. Unidentified officials told the newspaper that they found a teacher who went by the similar name working at the Faridpur school in Kasganj district. The report quoted the state government as saying that five more women with the name of Anamika Shukla were found to be working in Ambedkar Nagar, Baghpat, Aligarh, Saharanpur and Prayagraj districts.
Kasganj Basic Siksha Adhikari Anjali Agrawal said that on June 4, they served the woman a notice and asked her to present all the documents for verification. “After forming an investigative committee on Friday, we found that documents furnished by the teacher were forged,” Agrawal said. “Her salary account was immediately frozen.”
She said that on Saturday, the teacher went to the bank to withdraw her salary. “Once she found the bank account frozen, she went to the school to collect her belongings and later came to my office to submit her resignation,” Agrawal said. “We had informed the police beforehand and she was handed over to them.”
The accused has been booked under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will etc) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.
The woman claimed that she had paid Rs 2.5 lakh to a Mainpuri-based man for the job. She is a resident of Lakhanpur village. The village falls under the Kaimganj police jurisdiction in the Farrukhabad district.
“During interrogation, the accused initially claimed to be Anamika Singh, daughter of Subhas Singh,” Soron Station House Officer Ripudaman Singh told The Times of India. “However, her documents are in the name of Anamika Shukla, daughter of Subhas Chandra Shukla.” The police officer said the woman claimed that she was posted in the Faridpur Kasturba Gandhi School since August 2018.
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