Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A 24-year-old youth who exposed a fake sports certificate racket linked to govt recruitment was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Beed district on Thursday, prompting his family to allege foul play and demand a thorough probe.
Chavan had applied for recruitment to Dharashiv police force under the sports quota in 2024-25, according to family members. The probe resulted in criminal cases against several office bearers, while 14 police personnel and some sports officials were suspended. Family members and villagers staged a nearly 12-hour sit-in protest seeking a criminal investigation.
They said he recorded audio messages naming people he suspected of threatening him and expressing fears for his safety. In one such recording that has surfaced, Chavan allegedly said those associated with the Kurash Association should be held responsible if anything happened to him, regardless of the circumstances of his death. “The audio recording is also being examined,” inspector Jadhav said.
Vaibhav Chavan, a resident of Navgan Rajuri village in Beed taluka, was found hanging from a lemon tree in Imampur. Following allegations that he was assaulted before his death, police have deployed two teams to investigate. A state- and national-level karate player, he was placed on the waiting list despite securing marks similar to another candidate, who allegedly obtained employment using a fake sports certificate. Chavan later complained to the state sports commissionerate in Pune, leading to the exposure of an alleged racket involving bogus certificates issued through the Kurash Association. The association’s president and secretary were arrested by the Pune crime branch in connection with the case. Relatives and friends claimed Chavan had received death threats after the racket came to light. His family has demanded that police question everyone named in the recordings and investigate whether his death was linked to his efforts to expose the racket. The family also questioned the police’s initial handling of the case, alleging that visible injuries on Chavan’s body warranted registration of a criminal case rather than an accidental death report. They claimed injuries, particularly on his legs, suggested he may have been assaulted before being found hanging. The protest ended after senior police officers assured them that further action would be based on the postmortem findings.
Chavan was later cremated in his native village late on Thursday.
Inspector Somnath Jadhav of Beed Rural police said the provisional postmortem report did not record any external injuries. Further action will be decided based on the findings of the investigation and other evidence,” Jadhav said. “We have registered a case of accidental death and initiated an investigation.