Interstate job racket busted, cops arrest 4

Main accused posed as MD of an IT firm and handed out fake offer letters to victims after collecting Rs 1.8 lakh as placement fee

Main accused posed as MD of an IT firm and handed out fake offer letters to victims after collecting Rs 1.8 lakh as placement fee

The city police busted an interstate job racket involving four conmen including a woman, who had cheated unemployed graduates from Tamil Nadu after promising them jobs in a leading IT firm. The accused hailing from Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala used to charge candidates Rs 1.8 lakh with the promise of placing them as software engineers with Wipro Technologies on Sarjapura Road.


Major haul: The police recovered valuables worth Rs 58.23 lakh from
them. Pic/Satish Badiger

The kingpin of the elaborate racket identified as Rajiv Ranjan is a sales executive with Kotak Mahindra and has several cases of cheating registered against him. Satya Priya (25), who runs a job placement service -- Lotus Consultancy -- was responsible for luring gullible students into the net.

Setting the trap
The modus operandi was to offer lucrative jobs in major IT companies to aspirants from various states through associates, M N Narayana alias Hari from Kerala and Mohammed Azhar (25), from Hyderabad. Priya would collect a part of the Rs 1.8 lakh as placement fees before sending the victims to Rajiv. Before the victims met Rajiv at the company where they were promised jobs, Priya handed them visitor passes, which were actually forged. Being a master forger, Rajiv used to design fake ID cards to gain entry into IT firms and then keep the visitor passes with him, which he then sent to Priya to set up his game plan.

All an act
Posing as the Managing Director, Rajiv would gain entry into the firm using one of the entry passes, contact the victims on his mobile phone, take them to the canteen or guest area inside the campus and distribute fake appointment letters after collecting the remaining amount.

According to the police, the racket came to light when of the victims reported to WIPRO with their offer letters on the joining date. "To their astonishment, the HR of the company informed that their letters were fake and suggested that they approach the cops," said H Subbanna, ACP.

End of the road
Based on a complaint, a special team was formed and after detailed investigations, the police managed to nab Rajiv and his associates and recovered assets and valuables worth Rs 58.23 lakh from them. The seized booty includes two cars used by Rajiv, two motorcycles, gold valuables worth Rs 3.2 lakh, a watch worth Rs 10,000, fake offer letters of Wipro and original marks cards of several victims.