The Indian Army, the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces, has revealed a unique case of alleged recruitment of Pakistani nationals in the Indian Military through fake and forged documents. The Calcutta High Court has taken cognisance of the matter. The Court has said that the matter is grave while hearing the petition of Bishnu Chowdhary. The Court has issued notices to the concerned departments and summoned their answers.
According to the petitioner, an enormous racket is being pursued in India. The recruitment of people using fake documents is very high in the security forces as well, such as the Border Security Force, Sahastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) through the SSC (Staff Selection Committee) GD Constable exam.
The petitioner went on to say that one of his associates and friend, Mahesh Chowdhury is himself in the Indian Army, and he is also involved in the racket. He has helped two Pakistanis to get recruited in the Indian Army. He got his information from his relative. As per the petitioner, the two Pakistanis for which they made the documents have already passed the SSC Exam and are now recruited in the Indian Army.
He informed the Court that many people participate in the racket, and they help recruit people into the Indian Army based on forged documents. This dramatically endangers and threatens the national security of India significantly. The petitioner was afraid as many attempts had been made to kill him for complaining about the matter.
Now, the petitioner is being harassed by Mahesh Chowdhary and his associate Raju Gupta, and a conspiracy is being hatched to kill them.
The Calcutta High Court has issued notices to the Government of West Bengal, the DGP (Director General of Police), the SP of Hooghly district, the regional director and in charge of Mogra Police Station.
It has been said in the petition that a group of criminals are involved in these illegal professional practices. Apart from the Indian Army and Security Forces of India, these groups also create fake residence certificates, character certificates, and OBC (Other Backward Class) certificates. These are then issued by the DM (District Magistrate) and the SDM (Sub Divisional Magistrate), the Municipal President, Municipal Executive Officer and Police Departments.
Recruiting people on the ground of fake documents is a critical national security issue. The recruited Pakistanis in the Indian Military Academy (IMA) or the Officer Training Academy (OTA) will undergo rigorous training on the core concepts of the Indian Military. They will understand how the Indian Armed Forces work, how they are trained, what weapons platforms are being used currently and how they are procured.
They will receive important and sensitive information about the country’s critical infrastructures, locations of cantonments, bases, regiments, commands, defence industry, nuclear and strategic assets of India etc. They can reveal or divulge this information and valuable information to adversaries such as Pakistan, China and harmful non-state actors, mainly terrorists.
Using this information, the terrorists and adversaries will even learn military techniques from their outdoor physical and combat training. They will send this to military and intelligence planners who will get first-hand knowledge about India’s defence. They can get information about significant people and entities running the country. They can be assassinated secretly.
Enemy nations can utilise and exploit this critical data to externally attack the country. It is an example of asymmetric warfare techniques employed by governments, especially Pakistan, its ISI (Inter Service Intelligence), and the Peoples’ Republic of China.
