Bhubaneswar, Sept. 9: Three youths today alleged that a job consultancy firm had duped them of lakhs of rupees promising them jobs.

They also lodged an FIR, alleging that five of their friends sent by the firm to Malaysia were trapped in the country.

Kailash Chandra Dethi, one of the three youths, today lodged a complaint against SR Overseas and Marketing Company, alleging that it had taken Rs 1 lakh from him on the promise of providing him a job in Singapore.

“The company had taken Rs 1 lakh from me in 2011 and promised to provide me the job of a supervisor in a shopping mall in Singapore. Two of my friends had also paid him money. He took us to Bangalore last year, and we stayed there for 45 days. The consultancy firm had given me a visa confirmation letter which turned out to be fake,” alleged Dethi, who hails from Kendrapara.

Kailash in his FIR stated that the firm had sent Goutam Rout of Bhubaneswar, Biswajeet Sahoo, Lalit Mohan Sahoo and Udaybhanu Panda of Cuttack and Dayanidhi Nayak of Kendrapara to Malaysia two months ago to work as supervisors and sales mangers in shopping malls. “But, they found that there were no jobs for them. They are still trapped in Malaysia as their tourist visa has expired,” alleged Dethi.

In another case, Khandagiri police recently arrested one Bapin Patra, who had taken Rs 10 lakh from 10 persons promising them jobs in Dubai.

The police said Patra had a number of fraud cases against him.

In May, Saheed Nagar police arrested the owner and the director of a city-based software company for cheating more than 60 youths, whom were given jobs but not paid salaries.