Fake certificates: Maharashtra state gymnastics officials face the heat

A case has come to mild the place one Vijay Sadashiv Borkar allegedly submitted a pretend sports activities certificates to get a job in a Maharashtra state authorities division underneath the sports activities quota.

The Kolhapur district sports activities officer, Shankar Gangaram Bhaskar, has filed an FIR towards Borkar alleging that he had submitted a pretend certificates claiming he had received bronze within the National Trampoline Championship held in Mumbai from Dec 27-29, 2013 underneath the aegis of the Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI).

Bhaskar has additionally accused Mahendra Anant Chemburkar, the Maharashtra Gymnastics Association secretary from 2011-2015, and Sangli district secretary Deepak Sawant of giving false data that Borkar received bronze within the championship.

“The competition was not held and GFI didn’t issue any certificate,” mentioned Kaushik Bidiwala who was the GFI secretary-general in 2013.

However, Chemburkar denied any wrongdoing. “There are two factions in the state. The rival group wants to tarnish my image. Let those who have the certificates reveal the names,” he mentioned from Mumbai.

An official accustomed to the event mentioned on situation of anonymity, “A national-level certificate can be had for anything between R5-10 lakh. It depends on your resources. Five cases of bogus certificates have come to light, all in gymnastics. An FIR has been filed in one case while investigations are on in others.”

The circumstances are from the interval between 2011 and 2013 when GFI wasn’t recognised by the sports activities ministry and nationwide competitions weren’t carried out. The certificates are accompanied by affidavits from then GFI treasurer S Shantikumar Singh from Manipur.

Singh confirmed he had acquired a letter from the Maharashtra sports activities division. “I haven’t given any affidavit. Someone has forged my signature and picture. This is to defame me.”

Following the elections in November 2019, Singh grew to become GFI secretary-general. In May, although, the ministry refused to grant recognition to GFI as Singh was not eligible for the put up.

Borkar’s luck ran out when his certificates was despatched for re-verification to the headquarters – sports activities directorate – in Pune. In one other case, Pawan Ashok Patil’s certificates mentions he had received silver within the National Trampoline Championship at Mumbai in 2011.

The certificates is signed by Bidiwala after which president Jaspal Singh Khandhari. “No national competition was conducted in 2011… the certificate is fake,” mentioned Bidiwala.

Bidiwala doesn’t rule out state officers’ connivance. “It’s easy to make fake certificates… someone from within the system has done it,” he says.