Patna, Apr 25 (IANS): The education department has detected alleged fraud by 445 candidates during recruitment of primary teachers in Bihar.

The frauds were unearthed during the checking of documents submitted by the candidates during counselling.

"A total of 1,377 candidates have been selected for recruitment as primary teachers. While documents of 932 candidates were found genuine, the remaining 445 candidates have suspicious documents, said Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, the state Education Minister.

"We have asked the authorities to initiate a thorough checking of their documents from the offices of CTET and TET. Besides, we have also directed them to verify their university documents as well," Chaudhary said.

A maximum of 223 candidates from Gopalganj submitted either suspicious or fraudulent documents during counselling. Besides, East and West Champaran districts have 80 candidates each, 38 from Madhubani, 15 in Nalanda, 3 each in Muzaffarpur and Nawada, 2 from Bhojpur and one each from Katihar and Sitamarhi districts.

"If proved guilty, FIRs will be registered against them under relevant IPC sections of cheating and forgery," Chaudhary said.