At least 10 people were arrested in four separate cases of duping job seekers in the city in the past three days.
On Tuesday, four persons were picked up from two different locations for extracting money from youths on the pretext of offering them employment cards and jobs with well-known companies across the nation.
“One Vibhuti Kumar Kundan had turned up at the janata durbar of the senior superintendent of police (SSP) last week complaining that one Rajesh Kumar, a self-styled director of Environment Development Committee, located in the S.K. Puri area. Kundan said he had paid Kumar Rs 1,000 for a job card around three months ago but the latter kept on ignoring him after getting the money. Recently, Kundan was asked to come to the office of Sky Rise Marketing Private Limited under the Jakkanpur police station area for the job card. Once there, he was again asked to pay Rs 3,000 on the pretext of giving him a job with Hindustan Unilever,” SSP Manu Maharaj said.
“With the man lodging an FIR with S.K Puri police station, a special team raided the premises and unearthed the racket. The police recovered many fake certificates of different educational institutes and colleges of Nagaland, Sikkim, Odisha among others and many job cards too. Four persons, including Rajesh, have been arrested,” Maharaj said.
On Tuesday again, the police were successful in arresting three persons who were running a similar racket. “The men used to lure the SC/ST/OBC youths by promising them admissions in BTech and MTech courses in different institutes in return of money. Acting upon a complaint, which stated that these men had taken a sum of anything between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 from many on the pretext of the same. An office by the name of Prakash Natural Therapy Centre located in the Gardanibagh area was raided and the trio were nabbed. Many forged and fake documents have been found there also,” Maharaj added.
Another fake company, Well Point Technology Private Limited in the S.K. Puri area, was also busted with two persons being arrested. The duo had taken at least Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 from many people promising them jobs. The office, the police officer said, was well furnished with the men in khaki recovering many documents and 13 laptops besides cellphone handsets.
The same day saw the arrest of one Prashant Kumar who, along with his wife, had duped a couple of Rs 19 lakh by promising them an agency of a bicycle company. This arrest came after the victim, identified as businessman Amit Kumar, had complained about it in the SSP’s janata durbar. Prashant’s wife Neetu, a partner in the crime, is absconding at present.
“Earlier too, Patna has witnessed such rackets but the same had minimised since the last couple of months. These back-to-back catches, however, have sent an alarm. These men cleverly bring about a strategy in order to fox people. The men invest some money in setting up a swanky office anywhere and then invest more money in printing lucrative advertisements in newspapers. They know for a fact that the returns will be huge,” a police officer said.
Asked about such gangs’ active presence in the state, another officer said there could be several factors behind the same. “Not just Bihar, such rackets find their presence in states like Jharkhand, Odisha too. They first observe the socio-economic conditions of any place before stepping into the same. Bihar, like Jharkhand, is a state with the rate of unemployment is high and the rural population is mostly little or uneducated. They take advantage of these situations. People need to be careful in this and should consult educated people before giving money to them for jobs,” the officer said.
