Minister embroiled in job scam

Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja is embroiled in an ironical controversy. A special investigation by CNN-IBN has found she may have been used by fake job scamsters in Haryana.

The team has documentary evidence and has met victims who paid up to Rs 2 lakh each for jobs they claim that Selja Kumari urged them into taking up.

Involved in the scam are a local scamster P S Sandhu and D K Bansal, the Congress MLA from Ambala Cantonment, which incidentally is Selja Kumari's Lok Sabha constituency.
The duo are under the scanner for setting up a fake Public Sector Undertaking called Agrofed and duping hundreds of youth across seven states.

Sandhu's mantra seemed to be "Give me a lakh and I will give you a government job". In 2003, Sandhu was jailed for posing as a Director of the Sports Authority of Haryana and issuing fake appointment letters to job-seekers.

Today, Sandhu is back in prison, accused of floating the bogus public sector unit.
“They posed as Government of India Undertaking and the people they felt that they are getting regular government job,” Ambala’s Superintendent of Police Amitabh Dhillon said.
Sandhu's political connections with the Congress Party leadership in Haryana ensured that nobody doubted his fake employment letters.

A newspaper ad of Agrofed featuring Union Minister Kumari Selja and Congress party hoardings sponsored by the fake PSU were all over Ambala two months ago.

When CNN-IBN team met Kumari Selja she said, “It’s true that there were certain people who came to me, for instance, there was this young hapless girl who was physically challenged and wanted a job,” Kumari Selja said.

CNN IBN's Special Investigation Team tracked down this physically challenged girl that Selja referred to.

CNN-IBN: Aapko Bataya kisne that Agrofed ke bare mein? (Who told you about Agrofed?)

Aruna: Unhone bataya tha Selja ne.( Selja Kumari told me about it)

CNN-IBN: Kya bataya tha? (What did she tell you?)

Aruna: Vaha mujhe apply karne ke liye bola tha. Uske baad unhone D K Bansal se baat ki thi. Unhone bola tha iss larki ki job lagani hai, toh D K Bansal ne yaha par appointment letter yaha mere paas bhej diya tha. (She asked me to apply there and said she had spoken with D K Bansal. Bansal was told I needed a job and he sent me an appointment letter.)
Like Aruna, many candidates who were given the Agrofed job letters say that they were sent by Sandhu and Bansal.

Deaf and mute Gurpreet Singh is another candidate who was duped. His employment letter clearly has Sandhu's signature as the chairman of Agrofed.

“Selja ke kehne par D K Bansal ne unhe yeah wala letter diya. Toh uske baad bola bhai iska medical checkup karvaye. (D K Bansal sent the appointment letter and asked us to get a medical checkup done)

When CNN-IBN confronted Bansal with photographs of him and Sandhu, he responded cautiously.

"I am seeing this picture for hthe first time. If you show me the actual album, then I can tell you if they are fabricated. Or it may be true, then it is not an offence," said Sandhu.
Kumari Selja seemed embarrassed by her association with a conman like Sandhu. But can she be excused? And the irony remains that she is the minister of Urban Employment.