Chakdah (Nadia), July 19: Around 100 youths from various south Bengal districts today lodged complaints with the Nadia police chief, alleging that they had been duped by a Chakdah-based recruitment agency.

The youths, most of them in their twenties, alleged that the agency had taken Rs 50,000 from each of them and their passports.

The agency had lured the youths by bringing out newspaper ads for recruitment at a food packaging plant in Poland.

The youths, who came from North 24-Parganas, Nadia, Hooghly, Burdwan and even Calcutta, became suspicious when they called the agency but found that its phones had been switched off.

The youths also found the agency’s Chakdah office locked.

Dulal Patra, of Sodepur in North 24-Parganas, said: “We became suspicious when the phones were found to be switched off. Not only have we lost Rs 50,000 each, our passports are lying with them.”