The Kanwizz Consultant Private Limited office in Ranchi. (Hardeep Singh)

More than 150 unemployed youths have been duped of about Rs 50 lakh by four persons, including a teenaged girl, who had promised to get them loans under Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojna (PMRY).

Sheela Kachhap (18), Ajay Singh (25), Ashutosh Singh (45) and Mohammed Javed (28), who had floated a private limited company and were operating from an office on the third floor of Pandey Bhavan at Hinoo under Doranda police station, have gone into hiding.

The fraud came to light when some of the duped youngsters, who had paid a fee for processing the loan and also seven per cent of the promised amount, went to Pandey Bhavan to collect the money on Friday. But to their horror, they found that the four had cleared out from the office, prompting Romi Mahali, one of the duped, to approach Doranda police on Saturday.

A resident of Semra village on the outskirts of the state capital under Itki police station, Romi had paid Rs 33,600 as commission and Rs 2,500 as processing fee to get a loan of Rs 4,80,000. He wanted to establish a company for supplying stone chips, sand and bricks with the money.

“The company floated by the four, Kanwizz Consultant Private Limited, issued an advertisement in a local Hindi daily on August 3 this year, inviting unemployed youths to get loans between Rs 1 lakh and 25 lakh for self-employment under PMRY. I first paid them Rs 2,500 as processing fee. Then they asked me to pay seven per cent of the loan as advance of their commission to bribe bank and government officials. I coughed up the sum on September 12,” he said.

Siria Heranj, a tribal girl who hails from Kadam Toli under Tupudana outpost of Dhurwa police station, was promised Rs 25 lakh as loan. However, she was lucky as she did not pay the commission, but does not know how she would recover the Rs 6,500 she had coughed up as processing fee.

Confirming the fraud, Ranchi superintendent of police (city) R.K. Prasad said: “The fraudsters took advantage of the innocence and limited knowledge of the youngsters. The fact that these young people are desperate to get jobs made them an easy catch.”

Though no one has been arrested yet, investigating officer of the case Ulfat Ali assured of a breakthrough soon. “Investigations are on. They will be nabbed,” he said.