CHENNAI: A Samajwadi Party (SP) functionary and a former contract employee of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) were arrested by sleuths of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) for running a job racket offering contract employment at TANGEDCO and collecting lakhs of rupees, here on Wednesday.
Police said SP functionary S Arumugam and ex-employee of TANGEDCO D C Raja colluded and collected `38.5 lakh from 27 persons, in individual amounts ranging from `50,000 to `2 lakh based on the qualification and the cadre, promising them employment at TANGEDCO as contract employees. They advertised in the mass media for openings on contract basis at TANGEDCO and lured the job aspirants for consultations with them.
Those who turned up for the consultations were told by the two that they would have to be enrolled in the TNEB Contract Workers Union, which was floated by D C Raja in 1998.
After enrolment the job aspirants were asked to pay up since they had to offer cash gifts to officials and management for appointment.
Believing them, the job aspirants paid the money, after which the duo tried to dodge them, but as the pressure increased they gave fake contract employment ID cards to those who had paid them and asked them to wait since employment procedures were under way.
As the wait turned from days into months, the job aspirants preferred a complaint with the City Police Commissioner. The complaint was forwarded to the CCB. Preliminary investigation revealed that the politico, who was into the real estate business on Walltax Road and the former TANGEDCO employee had conned several hundred people in a similar fashion in the past few years.
City Police Commissioner S George in a statement urged job aspirants not to pay any money towards employment in government and public sector undertakings as no such procedure was in place. He suggested that job aspirants should meet the officials concerned with regard to job openings and should never bank on mediators and brokers.
Several fake ID cards and contract employment applications were recovered from the two, who were remanded to judicial custody.