Lucknow, Oct 25 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has arrested a suspended accounts officer in the education department who was accused of issuing fake appointment letters to teachers.

The accused, Jagdish Prasad Srivastava, was absconding and carried a bounty of Rs 25,000.

Inspector (STF) Satya Prakash Singh, who led the operation, said Jagdish was arrested from traffic trisection in Gorakhpur on Sunday.

The STF said three FIRs were lodged against Jagdish in Deoria since 2018. Till now, 30 fake teachers have been arrested.

The STF took up the case on July 19, after senior block education officer, Birbal Ram, lodged an FIR regarding missing record books of 1987-1989 and 2010-11. He claimed that pages were missing from the record books of 2015-16.

Ram had claimed in the FIR that he had lodged a complaint about the appointment of teachers through fraudulent means in two aided government schools in the district.

Inspector (STF) Satya Prakash Singh said Jagdish was employed in the BSA office in Deoria since 2010.

"Jagdish is accused of tampering with the record books. He used to tear the pages of records and then feed wrong entries on those missing pages," said Singh.

Soon after Jagdish's name surfaced in an internal probe, he was suspended. The record books contained details of all teachers deployed in a district.

Sources in the STF said Jagdish made Rs 4 crore by issuing fake appointment letters.