A woman schoolteacher and two men have been arrested on the charge of duping a couple by taking Rs 1.17 lakh from them with the false promise of arranging jobs for them in the US.
A team from Entally police station picked up the trio — Marquis Gomes, Jessica Gomes and James de Cruise Rozario — on Wednesday night. Police said Jessica was a teacher at an English-medium school in Picnic Gardens.
Elizabeth Ana Gomes, a resident of Aga Mehdi Street in central Calcutta, had lodged a police complaint saying she and her husband, James Sanjay Gomes, had given Rs 1.17 lakh to some people, who had promised to arrange a job for Elizabeth in the US.
The three accused were identified as Marquis Gomes, Jessica Gomes and James de Cruise Rozario.
The cops have learnt that Elizabeth’s husband, an employee with a private firm, had visited the US in connection with his job several times and he and his wife decided that they would permanently move to the US.
“Their only worry was how to sustain themselves in the US and so they were looking out for employment opportunities in the US,” said a police officer.
The couple knew the accused through some common friends and they used to meet often at a place on Padmapukur CIT road.
“During one of such meetings, Elizabeth had shared her idea to go abroad with a job in hand. At this Jessica had voluntarily offered help and claimed that she was a distant relative of a politician and could easily arrange a job for her as a cook in a hotel in the US,” revealed an officer of Entally police station.
Elated with the offer the couple shelled out Rs 1.17 lakh in three instalments, between May 2010 and last month.
But as the accused started avoiding her after the payment was made, she realised that she was cheated.
“We received a complaint on Wednesday night and on raiding the homes of the three accused persons, managed to arrest them,” added the officer.
All three are residents of Tiljala. On being produced in the court on Thursday, all three have been remanded to police custody till the December 6.
