Bhubaneswar, Oct. 20: A youth was today arrested for allegedly cheating around 100 persons on the pretext of providing them jobs.

The youth Subash Parida, 34, a native of Kendrapara district, was running two consultancy firms in Bhubaneswar for the past five years.

Those cheated by Parida alleged that he had taken cash worth Rs 1.2 crore from them. “He had taken Rs 6.2 lakh from me assuring me of an engineer’s job in a city-based mobile tower company two years ago. But when I asked for the refund, he gave me a cheque that bounced,” said Bhakta Batsal Swain, a native of Kendrapara district.

Police said Parida used to promise people jobs in keeping with their qualifications.

“Parida had promised jobs to people with all kinds of educational qualifications beginning with matriculation. While the less qualified were being promised small jobs, others were being assured of posts of engineers and high posts in software companies,” said a police officer.

The victims also alleged that Parida had duped a number of people from Cuttack, Khurda and Kendrapara.

“He had taken Rs 30,000 for providing me a job of an operator in a mobile tower company last year. But later we failed to trace him. Despite several attempts, we could not locate him either in Kendrapara or Bhubaneswar,” said another victim Soumya Ranjan Naik. Parida was running two consultancy firms, one in Rasulgarh and the other in Nayapalli.

“Further investigations are on to find out the exact number of victims and the money collected by Parida,” said a senior officer of Nayapalli police station.

Earlier in September, a case was lodged against a city-based job consultant for allegedly duping some job seekers of nearly Rs 10 lakh. The consultant had collected the money from seven arts graduates promising them jobs in Singapore and Malaysia.

Earlier in May, Saheed Nagar police had arrested the owner and the director of a city-based software company for cheating more than 60 youths by not paying salaries to them after providing appointment letters.

Sources said that around 15 persons of five job consultancies were arrested during last six months.

“The flashy advertisements and attractive websites of such fraud agencies often attract unemployed youths. A number of such firms even print fake appraisal letters and pay slips in the name of fictitious companies,” said a police officer.