BHUBANESWAR: The prime accused in the fake recruitment scam in ITER of SOA University was arrested by police on Friday. The fraudster, Manas Ranjan Nayak, who is in his early 30s, has allegedly duped around 200 students by providing them duplicate placement letters.
Nayak, a native of Balia village within Salepur police limits in Cuttack district, was arrested from Puri and is being interrogated by a joint team of Khandagiri police and the Special Squad. On Saturday, he will be produced in court by police which will seek his custodial remand.
Nayak was the key link between the placement cell of ITER and fraud organisations. He furnished authorisation documents of multinational companies which certified him as an agent to facilitate recruitment on their behalf. Nayak organised campus interviews with a panel of dummy resource persons who were imposters, Police Commissioner Yogesh Bahadur Khurania said.
‘’When we checked with the companies, they denied of having carried out any placement interviews or issued any offer letters. The students were deceived with forged documents and duplicate websites which were created by the accused and his accomplices,’’ said Khurania.
More than 200 students, who had graduated from ITER, returned empty-handed from their place of postings after they found that the offer letters they had received from eight companies were fake. The college had roped in two firms from Delhi and Bengaluru for the campus placement drive. Earlier, ITER Placement Dean Prof RK Hota was arrested in this case.