Sleuths of the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police commissionerate have arrested a fly-by-night agent who had floated a recruitment firm in Mira Road to dupe unemployed youngsters under the pretext of providing overseas jobs with highly paid salaries in reputed Middle East-based shipping companies. The incident came to light when the accused who has been identified as- Dhiraj Deepbandhu Jha (30) issued a fake Covid-19 negative certificate to a job seeker without testing his swab sample.
The action followed after a 27-year-old youth from Punjab registered a complaint with the Naya Nagar police against the accused for cheating him of Rs. 1.45 lakh rupees to secure a lucrative overseas job in a shipping company. After killing time on the virtue of lame excuses, the accused gave air-tickets to Dubai along with other documents including visa and a Covid-19 negative certificate.
The complainant sensed something fishy as he had not undergone any kind of antigen or RT-PCR test to check the presence of the virus. Not ruling out more arrests in the case, an investigating officer said, “While the Covid-19 negative certificate turned out to be forged, we are checking the authenticity of other documents including the four-day visa issued to the complainant who was earlier sent to Gujarat by the accused.
It is our appeal to other victims cheated by him to come forward and register their complaints.” An offence under sections 420, 467,468 and 471 of the IPC has been registered against the accused who was remanded to two days police custody after he was produced before the district sessions court, Thane on Wednesday.The Naya Nagar police are conducting further investigations into the case.
