Ruby Chaudhry, the woman who stayed at the prestigious IAS training academy in Mussoorie for over six months masquerading as a probationer and accused a senior officer of taking bribe to facilitate her stay there, has been arrested and sent to jail for two weeks.
Judicial Magistrate Chavi Bansal sent Chaudhry to judicial custody for 14 days after she was produced before her hours after her arrest late Friday night, SP (city) Ajay Singh said.
She was arrested from a city hotel by the Special Investigation Team probing the case for offences under sections 420 (cheating, dishonesty), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 170 (impersonating as a public servant) of the IPC, Singh said.
The official denied the woman’s allegation that there was an attempt to shield Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Deputy Director Saurabh Jain by authorities as he had held key positions in the administration.
“I can firmly say no one is being protected. Interrogation of the woman goes on and if name of any other person crops up during investigation, he will be quizzed. There is no question of anyone being spared,” Singh said.
Jain is the official whom she had accused of issuing her a fake ID card to facilitate her stay at the academy and taking Rs 5 lakh as part of a Rs 20 lakh deal to get her a job at the institute.
Chaudhry, who hails from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, on Friday threatened to commit suicide if she does not get justice in the case even as the academy came to the defence of Jain saying all the charges levelled by the woman against the academy and him were “malicious” and “baseless”.
A rebuttal issued by Joint Director of the Academy D Nariala had said, “The allegations of false promise of job to the alleged person were baseless, malicious and hence are categorically denied.”
Jain himself has strongly refuted the charges, saying they have hurt his reputation and that he will take the matter to court by filing a civil and criminal defamation case against Chaudhry.
According to an FIR lodged by local police against Chaudhry on Tuesday, the woman arrived at the academy on September 20 last year and introduced herself as a trainee IAS officer and stayed there for a little over six months before mysteriously disappearing on March 27, official sources said.
Following the case, Uttarakhand police formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter.
Image: Ruby Chaudhry arrived at the academy on September 20 last year and introduced herself as a trainee IAS office. Photograph: PTI
