BERHAMPUR: Berhampur police on Wednesday busted a fake job racket and arrested nine persons for allegedly duping gullible unemployed youth of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of providing them government jobs.
Police began investigation after receiving complaint from Santosh Sahu who on Tuesday alleged one Hrudananda Muni and his associates duped him and his relatives of around Rs 27.50 lakh on the pretext of giving them government jobs.
As per the complaint, Sahu first came in touch with Muni in January 2023 at a function in Aska during which the latter introduced himself as a government officer with good influence in various departments. Muni also allegedly got his associates introduced to Sahu claiming they too were government officials and helped people get jobs.
Police said Muni allegedly showed Sahu some contacts and appointment letters to prove his claims. Lured, Sahu, requested Muni if he could help him and his relatives get jobs too. Muni then asked him and his relatives to prepare their resume for verification and asked them to pay Rs 3 lakh each once they were shortlisted.
Later, Muni took the victims to Nirman Souda at Bhubaneswar where they met one Jagadish Behera who introduced himself as a senior government officer. Behera told the victims to submit their identity proof via email to get their appointment letters. The accused asked the victims to come to Bhubaneswar for physical fitness and biometric verification. When the date of joining, as mentioned in the appointment letters, approached, Muni and his associates kept postponing it and switched off their phones, the complaint stated.
Sensing that they had been cheated, Sahu and the other victims confronted the accused asking them to pay their money back. However, they threatened them of dire consequences. They also reportedly hired bouncers to threaten the victims.
Following a complaint, Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M formed special teams and Behera, Muni and the other accused were arrested. During interrogation, the accused revealed they were unemployed and resorted to such illegal tactics to mint money from gullible people.
Further investigations revealed the accused have duped several people of over Rs 1.96 crore on job pretext. “Police suspect the involvement of more people in the racket and efforts are underway to nab them,” the SP said. Mobile phones, fake government seals, appointment letters, bank cheque books and a car, among other things were seized from them, he added.