Kerala job fraud case handed over to crime branch, lookout notice issued against accused
KOLLAM: The Crime Branch will probe the job fraud in which as many as 70 people were duped of Rs 2.76 crore by an agent promising a job in Israel, the State police chief Loknath Behera said at a police Adalat here. He said that a lookout notice had also been issued against the main accused who is currently in Israel. The police chief initiated the action following victim complaints of police apathy in booking the alleged fraudsters.
Behera assured the petitioners that the absconding main accused, Edward Daniel, a native of Kollam, would be nabbed with the help of the Interpol. The victims, including 12 women, who were promised jobs in Israel have been fighting to seek justice for the past eleven months. The incident took place in 2016. According to the petitioners, Edward Daniel, along with Danish Edward, Joseph Patrick and Liji Prasanan had taken around Rs 3.75 lakh from each candidate offering them a job in Israel.
In July 2018, as many as 65 of the candidates were taken to Egypt and were left there without any jobs for four months. According to one of the victims, they survived there with the help of the other Malayalis in the African country. Once they reached there, Edward’s team had even taken away the money that they had set aside to meet their personal expenses.
“The accused, who was in Israel during that time, had promised that he will take us to Israel within two days and had again siphoned off $6,500. After a few days when we tried to contact him, he started abusing us,” said Lalan Hendry, chairman of the action council of the duped candidates. “After four months all of us were able to return to Kerala, with the help of our relatives in Kerala,” he said.
The victims are from Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Wayanad and Thiruvananthapuram district. The victims had registered a cheating case against Edward with Chavara police station in February 2019. Even though the police had then assured them that they will issue a lookout notice against the accused in Israel no such action was taken.
The action council also alleged that the police called them to take their first statement only after four months. Seeing their lackadaisical attitude towards the investigation, they were forced to approach higher authorities, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the State police chief to conduct a fair probe in the matter.