Pune Job Racket: 150 Candidates Given Fake Appointment Letters; Six Arrested

Pune: The Shivajinagar police have busted an alleged recruitment racket that promised jobs in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and other municipal corporations in exchange for payments ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹15 lakh. The accused allegedly duped unemployed youths by promising positions ranging from peons to engineers.

According to the police, the accused used purported fake PMC letterheads, seals and forged signatures to issue bogus appointment letters, identity cards and salary slips to candidates. During the investigation, police reportedly recovered an Excel sheet containing details of more than 150 candidates allegedly targeted by the racket.

The accused allegedly created an impression that the candidates had secured municipal jobs by showing salary amounts being credited to their bank accounts. Police suspect that the racket may have collected crores of rupees from job seekers.

A total of nine people have been booked in connection with the case, while six accused have been arrested. Those arrested have been identified as Ronit Satish Kumbhar, Leena Dayanand Gaikwad, Amit Suhas Deshpande, Amit Darwatkar, Anand Londanwar and Shivanand Balasaheb Patil.

Police are searching for Rajendra Baban Khedkar, Sanjay Anant Bhalerao and Namita Govardhan Bansode. According to police, Khedkar, Bhalerao and Patil are allegedly among the key accused in the racket.

At the Shivajinagar police station, complaints have so far been registered by 17 victims, alleging a total loss of around ₹2.02 crore. One of the complaints involves an alleged payment of ₹45 lakh by a single candidate.

Cases have also been registered at the Bharati Vidyapeeth police station, where seven people allegedly lost around ₹1.5 crore, and at the Swargate police station, where three to four people allegedly lost approximately ₹30 lakh.

Police are now investigating the financial transactions and the wider network involved in the alleged recruitment racket. Investigators are also examining the details of the more than 150 candidates found in the recovered records to determine the total number of victims and the overall amount allegedly collected by the accused.