Kolkata, Dec 2 (IANS): Recruitment irregularities have now surfaced in the West Bengal correctional services department with the arrest of one person in Kolkata on the charges of issuing fake appointment letter by forging the signature of a high profile minister in the state cabinet.

The person arrested in this connection has been identified as Prabhakar Nayek, a group D staff attached to the Indian Museum in central Kolkata.

Nayek issued the fake appointment letter for the jail - museum in south Kolkata to a youth forging the signature of the Municipal Affairs & Urban Development Minister and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) mayor Firhad Hakim.

Although the administrative authority of the jail museum rests with the state correctional services department, its maintenance responsibility rests with West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO), which comes under jurisdiction of Hakim's department.

Nayek forged the signature of Hakim so that the fake appointment letter appears to be genuine.

The youth went to a jail-museum to join services with that fake appointment letter. However, the jail-museum officials doubted that letter to be fake and they started cross-checking. After the appointment letter was found to be fake the officials informed the police.

The youth then told the investigative officials about the details of Nayek and also informed that he got this appointment letter against a payment of Rs 3,00,000. Thereafter the cops arrested Nayek.

Nayek, who is in police custody now, is believed by the cops to be a part of a major racket.