KOCHI: Seventeen job aspirants were reportedly duped at Rs 80 lakh by a recruitment agency by falsely guaranteeing them employment opportunities in New Zealand.
According to a complaint filed with the police, Eurofly Holidays, based in Kakkanad, deceived the group of 17 individuals by providing fraudulent visas and air tickets. The fraudsters who introduced themselves as Shameer Khan, proprietor of Eurofly, and Sajad, took Rs 5 lakh from each of the job seekers.
The 17-member group discovered the fraud just a few hours before they departed from Kochi Airport. “As per the information that we received, our flight was scheduled for Saturday morning. The agency people asked all of us to meet at the airport by Thursday midnight.
Though we all turned up on time, no one from the agency reached there. Shameer Khan, who also assured to accompany us to New Zealand, also went missing as we couldn’t reach anyone over the phone,” said Venu K J, a 47-year-old resident of Tripunithura working as a goldsmith in Kochi. The police stated that most of them arranged funds for the agency by pledging gold ornaments and land documents.