LUCKNOW, March 31 -- The ongoing probe into the Ballia nurse recruitment racket has revealed that the number of nurses who got appointment via duplicate joining letters is now over three dozen.

"To be exact, salaries of 37 nurses have been stopped till now as their appointment was done fraudulently. All of them are absconding since their names figured on the list of nurses with duplicate joining letters," Ballia chief medical officer Dr Vijay Yadav said.

The matter came to fore after the then CMO Dr Vijay Pati Dwivedi lodged an FIR on February 22 in connection with the fraudulent appointments. The racket had surfaced after an inspection at a primary health centre (PHC) in November. During the inspection, Dr Dwivedi asked a newly recruit...