Patna, July 24: Police have launched a hunt for the people (gang or individual) involved in creating a fake website of Patna High Court and duping a man of Rs 7,000 on the pretext of appointment to a post, vacancy for which was advertised on the website.

One Praveen Singh, a resident of Saidpur in Patna, had logged on to the fake website “www.highcourtpatna.co.in” and got the link to a web page which advertised vacancies for Group D employees in the court.

The original website address of the court is www.patnahighcourt.bih.nic.in.

Patna superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande told The Telegraph that Singh, who is around 40, went straight to the high court premises after checking the job offer and met one Baidyanath Sahni, who introduced himself as the driver of one of the judges in the court.

“The fake website has got a web page — ‘Employment Notice Number 07/2009’. At present, the website shows a list of 175 people who are said to have been recruited already. Singh, a native of Samastipur district, went to high court after coming to know about the job offer on May 16. There, he came in contact with Sahni who said the job offer existed and asked Singh to pay Rs 7000 for the same,” Lande said.

Singh, who is unemployed, readily agreed to pay the sum to Sahni. “Once the money was paid, Sahni got a blank paper without any stamp or signature and wrote on it that Singh had been recruited for the job and should join office from July 15. The man went to the high court again on the date of joining and got a shock when told no such vacancy existed,” the officer said.

Singh met Jai Kumar Singh, who works as court officer at the high court, and told him that he had been asked to join work.

“The official at the high court told him there was no such job offer and that they never published any advertisements on the website. An FIR with regard to the fake website was lodged by the victim at the Kotwali police station on July 16,” Lande said.

“The police have got an anti-cyber crime team and they are making the necessary investigations in the case. The police are trying to track down the people who created this website. In addition to this, the whereabouts of Sahni also needs to be ascertained,” the officer said.

Sources said the list of 175 people which was published on the website is a cause of concern for the police. “Thou-gh the police have not got any complaints apart from the one lodged by Singh, it cannot be said for sure that he is the only victim,” Lande said.