The office of the ‘National Anti Corruption Front’ in Malda. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Aug. 5: At least six youths have complained that they were duped out of thousands of rupees after they joined an organisation that professed to be a central government affiliate to fight corruption across the country.

The agency named National Anti Corruption Front has been flaunting a signboard at its office in Nazrulpally for the past three years, but came to the notice of police after the youths filed an FIR yesterday. While one of them had shelled out Rs 1 lakh, three others have given Rs 88,000, Rs 46,000 and Rs 44,000 for jobs with monthly salaries ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 7,000. The remaining two youths said they paid less than Rs 50,000 but refused to specify the exact amount. All six who did not want to be identified claimed that they worked for the agency for nearly one-and-a-half years without any salary and they were at least “200 victims” like them.

The district superintendent of police, Satyajit Bandyopadhyay, said he has ordered a high-level probe.

The company’s brochures claim that the organisation has posts and designations like “anti-corruption officer”, “corruption investigation officer”, “field officer” and “reporter” among others.

The agency has also issued identity cards marked “press” which says that it was registered with the “registrar of newspaper” (sic).

An “appointment letter” issued to one of the youths, who lives in Alinagar village, says the agency is “affiliated by (sic)” an organisation called “Corruption Today”.

The letterhead claims that it was registered with the ministry of information and broadcasting, government of India. It also works “in corporation with” all government agencies like the “CBI, CIB, CID, Rail Wing, RAW and IT”.

The signature in Hindi at the end of the letter is by Bhupendra Singh Juneja of New Delhi, the “director” of the agency.

The youths said one Mosaraf Hossain who lives in Mothabari, 30km from here, was in charge of the office. When contacted over the phone, Hossain told The Telegraph to come to his office at 4pm today. However, barring a woman employee who said she had joined last month, no one was present. Later Hossain said he was away in Murshidabad.

Residents of Nazrulpally said many men and women used to visit the office. “We were told to gather information on crimes in the villages and the border areas,” a youth said. Bandyopadhyay said the charge of investigation has been given to additional police superintendent Sujit Sarkar.