BHOPAL: The five fraudsters have been arrested for running a job racket and duping their victims by promising them jobs in railways and Food Corporation of India.
Special task force (STF) has registered two FIRs and have arrested the kingpin on Tuesday. He is an employee of the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Ratlam.
ADG, Ashok Awasthi informed that the kingpin has been identified as Vikram Batham. He is posted as sports officer in DRM Ratlam. He and his four aides lured many aspirants and cheated them by giving them the fake appointment letters.
They charged Rs 1.50 lakh to 3.50 lakh per head from aspirants in the pretext of providing jobs in railways and in FCI.
Probe revealed that the fraudsters only targeted class Xth and XIIth pass youths.
Two complainants Radheshyam Lowanshi resident of Rajgarh and Sandeep Yadav resident of Bhopal told STF that they had paid huge amount to get the appointment in the railways.
Radhyeshyam had applied for the two posts one in railway and other in FCI, for both he had given Rs 3.50 lakh each. The other victim had given amount for the railway post.
The recruitment process was run in such a manner that no one could find any fault in the appointment letter or the subsequent phases of recruitment like training.
Those arrested include the kingpin Vikram Batham and his aides Madan Gurjar resident of Betul, Pravin Badode of Bhopal, Baburao Mohne of Betul and Prakash Lodhi of Bhopal.
The officials of DRM Ratlam will be quizzed during the further probe.
Modus operandi: The recruited aspirant were first made to go for a medical check-up at the railway hospital by the government doctors in Ratlam.
After that they were given training in a government premises.
Thereafter they were given 15 days field training with the railway guards.
The victims were given identity cards with high-end security features a joining letter with Ashoka emblem and other formal documents.
In FCI case the training was given in Pratappura village of state Jharkhand.
Joining letter: The letters were issued from fake DRM Kanpur office. No such office exists in railway. The letter directed the candidates to join their services at Kanpur office. However, when they reached their they found that no such office exists. They tried to contact the other DRM offices including those in Ratlam, Bhopal among others in vain. They remained running from pillar to post for months.
In the FCI joining case, the letter was issued on June 6, 2019 and the candidates were directed the joining their services from May 21 to June 4.
Their place of joining was New Delhi and when they reached the office a ‘well dressed officer’ received their letter and told them that have failed to report before due date of joining and thus they can no longer join the service. The candidates returned to their homes empty handed.
