This is a story of how a twin brother
got away with the job that was supposed
to be his sibling’s.
In the year 1974, Prem Singh a brilliant
student cleared the UPSC exam and got
an appointment at the Central Excise department.
Not long after he even cracked a Punjab
Government examination and got a job at
weighs and measures wing. Prem kept the
previous job intact and the twin brother
Rattan Singh was offered the second job
at the weighs and measures wing by his
brother. There was not an ounce of doubt
as these twins were identical in weight,
face, voice, height, date of birth and
even the mole in the body. This continued
for 28 years and then whether you call
it destiny or luck, the hard kept secret
was out one fine day. In 2002, Rattan
applied for voluntary retirement seeking
superannuation benefits. But somebody
who got suspicious about the activities
of the brothers filed a complaint. The
Vigilance Bureau made enquiries and a
criminal case was filed against the brothers
on January 27, 2003 at the Mohali Police
station. They managed to get anticipatory
bail and finally Rattan lost his job in
the year 2005.
Not bothered about the repercussions,
Rattan Singh approached the High Court
asking for a stay on recovery of Rs 8.11
lakh in job benefits. The plea came to
Justice Permod Kohli who dismissed the
case saying, “the petitioner, in
the first place, cannot be treated as
an employee (of weights and measures wing)
since he joined the job his brother had
been appointed for.”
The twins hail from the Anandpur Sahib
village in Punjab.
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