The four persons arrested by Khandagiri police for duping unemployed youths. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, April 16: A fake job racket was busted with the arrest of four persons yesterday.

The gang has cheated a number of job aspirants on the pretext of giving them work as data entry operators at government offices including police departments.

Police arrested —Bibhuti Bhusan Pradhan, 24, Sanatan Nayak, 36, Pradipta Manohari, 30, and Samir Pattnaik, 28 — all employees of Unique Consultancy functioning from Satabdi Nagar near Baramunda.

They were arrested after getting a complaint from a youth Sudam Kabat, a native of Balangir. The consultancy had taken Rs 60,000 from the victim promising him of giving a job of data entry operator at the office of the superintendent of police, Balangir.

The consultancy had given Kabat a fake joining letter, but when he appeared at the office for joining, he came to know that the joining letter was fake. Later, he registered a case with Khandagiri police station this month.

“After getting the complaint, we sent a officer of quick action team as a decoy. The consultancy demanded Rs 20, 000 for giving him a job of data entry operator in the city police office. Raids were conducted at the office and four accused were arrested,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

However, the managing director of the consultancy, Jagnyadutta Meher, is still absconding. The police have found two bank accounts of the consultancy and have also written letters to the bank authorities to freeze both the accounts.

The police said the consultancy used to target unemployed youths of west Odisha and used to give them fake appointment letters along with fake joining letters. The police have seized a computer, a laptop and resumes of hundreds of unemployed youths. The consultancy used to attract youths by advertisements in newspapers and short message service (SMS) through mobiles.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that five unemployed youths had got jobs through this consultancy and they had also signed bond papers to give Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh each to the consultancy for the job,” said a senior police officer. The police said that the consultancy used to change the location of their office frequently to cheat the duped youths.

The police are also investigating to find out the possible involvement of government officials in the fake job racket.