Mumbai: Three held for cheating job seekers to a tune of over Rs 20 lakh

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch has arrested three accused who had allegedly cheated several job seekers to the tune of lakhs of rupees with the promise of high-paying jobs abroad.

According to Crime Branch officers, investigations were initiated into the matter after a Dongri-based woman approached them with a complaint on June 11 this year.

The woman, who runs a recruitment agency, said that she had referred 22 job seekers to the three accused, who had promised to get all of them well-paying jobs in various countries depending on their qualifications.

“From September 2019 to June 2020, the trio took a total of Rs 20.57 lakh from the job seekers and kept stringing them along saying that they would soon get good jobs. However, when there was no sign of any job, the job seekers went back to the complainant, who approached us,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Balsing Rajput.

An FIR was subsequently registered with the Byculla police station against the trio and the Crime Branch Unit III was instructed to investigate the case.

“The trio seem to have got wind of the fact that the complainant had approached the authorities and had been on the run ever since the FIR was registered. We were continuously tracking their cellular locations, with sporadic results, and this, combined with human intelligence, finally led us to Vashi in Navi Mumbai,” said an officer who was part of the investigation.

The trio, identified as Manish Pandey (34), Sai Ameen (40) and Hrishikesh Nalawade (35), were arrested on Tuesday and charged with cheating under the Indian Pena Code.

The Crime Branch is now interrogating them to find out how many other job seekers they have similarly cheated, as well as trying to recover the money that they fraudulently made, officials said.