Bhubaneswar, May 29: Police today formed three teams to probe into the fake recruitment scam at the Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University here.

The police said they had prepared a list of 25 persons following their interrogation of the varsity's additional dean of placements. They are now looking into the alleged role of these people, most of whom belong to other states, in the scam.

Police commissioner Y.B. Khurania said the teams would conduct drives to trace and arrest the people, who came to recruit the students from the varsity.

"The list has been prepared after interrogating the varsity officials. The drive will begin from tomorrow," said Khurania.

He also hinted that with the investigation more people could be involved in the scam. "We are in the process of verifying the identities and addresses of the accused involved in the racket," he said.

The police, who had taken Rajkumar Hota, the varsity's additional dean of placement, on a two-day remand, have finished interrogating him and might seek further custody to complete the probe.

"It's an organised scam, and we are exploring all possible angles to get a clear picture," said a senior police official associated with the probe.

Around 400 students were duped by a consultancy hired by the varsity for its placement drive.

Gang busted

Cuttack police have busted a mobile phone theft gang with the arrest of two persons involved in the misappropriation of consignments of a courier service.

The two persons, who were arrested yesterday, have been identified as Pradeep Kumar Sathua, 44, and Prashant Kumar Sathua, 33, of Sarapla in Deogarh district. Pradeep is an operational employee of a private courier service.

The cops discovered the misappropriation of consignments while investigating a complaint lodged at Purighat police station.

Lalit Kumar Sharma of Nandi Sahi complained that he had purchased a high-end smart phone online on March 27. He returned it to the company's distributor in Bangalore through the private courier service after finding some defects in the phone.

He booked his consignment at the courier's franchisee at Nima Sahi on April 10. But when it reached Bangalore, a brick piece was found inside the parcel, Sharma alleged.

The cops traced and recovered the lost phone at Gopal Prasad in Talcher.

"The accused Pradeep Kumar Sathua, a DTDC employee, misappropriated the mobile and sold it at Gopal Prasad," deputy commissioner Sanjeev Arora said.

"Three more mobile phones were recovered from the accused. They were part of consignments supposed to be delivered to customers, but were misappropriated by the accused," Arora said.