BHUBANESWAR : Three persons including two Maharashtra natives were arrested on Sunday for allegedly cheating gullible unemployed youths on the promise of providing them employment in Israel.
Police came to know of the scam after being alerted by the protector of emigrants of the Ministry of External Affairs Sunil Kumar Sah that a fake job interview was underway at a hotel in Kharavela Nagar here.
On receiving the information, police raided the hotel and nabbed the three accused - Babulahari Gouda (42) of Ganjam, and Mahesh Ramchandra Lokhande (45) and Kiran Shashikant Ghumre (51) of Mumbai from the spot. The trio had allegedly posted fake job advertisements to lure the unemployed youths of the state.
Speaking to mediapersons on Monday, Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena said Gouda stayed in Mumbai and the other two accused are his friends. Around 15 job aspirants were present in the hotel when police reached the area for a raid.
“The scamsters had asked them to give an advance of `500 each. They had also planned to issue fake job offer letters and collect `70,000 more from each of them. Some resumes and forged documents were seized,” said Meena.
They widely circulated fake advertisements on social media and used forged documents resembling official notifications of the Ministry of Labour and Employment to cheat the unsuspecting job seekers. The three were neither authorised by the Ministry of External Affairs or any registered recruitment agency, police said.
During investigation, police found that the trio had conducted such fake interviews in the past too. “The accused were mostly targeting the youths who were either 10th pass or matric dropouts. They had promised to provide them jobs in various posts like sweeper, store keeper, helper, fitter and rigger,” said Kharavela Nagar IIC, Rajanikanta Mishra.
During interrogation, Gouda revealed he had managed to provide gig jobs to some youths in over five countries, police said.