Malda postal department has filed a police complaint against 15 applicants for furnishing fake documents with their application for recruitment in the department.

Sources said recently, a notification was issued for recruitment of “Gramin Daksebak” (rural postman) for over 100 vacant posts in Malda. In due course, the department received hundreds of applications and as a part of the process, those were sent for perusal.

“During verification, some educational credentials were found to be fake and officials of the department wrote to the concerned examination boards to verify the authenticity of those testimonials,” said a source.

Jagdish Singh, the superintendent of posts, Malda postal division, said the boards informed that at least 15 such testimonials were not issued by them.

“It was evident that the applicants had forged those documents and applied for a government job. This is a serious offence and we have lodged a complaint with the police,” Singh added.

Alok Rajoria, the district police chief, said the complaint has been registered and a probe was on.

In the past three weeks, this is the third such instance when the attempts of getting government jobs by forging signatures or furnishing fake documents have come to the fore.

Last month, the minister of state of irrigation and waterways department Sabina Yeasmin had alleged that her official letterhead and signature was forged by a youth who used those to draft a recommendation letter with the name of the minister for a job in the state public health engineering department.