Three persons, including a 22-year-old woman, have been arrested for allegedly duping over a hundred people on the pretext of getting them a job with Air India. The accused would pose as employers and approach job aspirants on job portals online. DCP (South West district) Devender Arya said the accused have been identified as Shahdab Malik (26), Kumud Ranjan Kamlesh (40) and Priyanka Goswami (22). "Malik, the mastermind of the gang, has worked with several MNCs in the past, including a leading e-wallet based in Noida. Kumud has in the past worked with several BPOs while Priyanka worked with an RO company in Laxmi Nagar," Arya said. He said the cyber cell has recovered a laptop which they used to allegedly create fake proposal letters, 10 phones and SIM cards, 14 debit cards and two cheque books. Police said action was taken after they received a complaint from one Anwesha Datta, who worked with an online food delivery company and lost her job during the pandemic. "She was looking for a job and received an email from a purported Air India address regarding a job opening. They asked her to share her resume and deposit Rs 1, 875 in their account. After depositing the money she received an offer letter and was asked to deposit money in the name of uniform fee, verification fee and others. The complainant alleged they took Rs 71,800 and she realised that she had been cheated," a senior police officer said. Police then scanned the details of bank accounts used by the accused. "With the help of technical surveillance, police traced their locations and arrested them. Police found that Priyanka was living with Malik in Noida posing as a married couple. She told her landlord she was with the Air India HR department,” the officer said. According to police, during questioning, Malik told them that he and his associates had made an employer account on a job portal after using forged documents. "They would obtain job seekers details, including their email addresses, name and phone numbers. Priyanka would then convince them to transfer money in their account. Kamlesh had made a forged Aadhaar card and registered multiple bank accounts using it. They approached job seekers through email and on phone and duped hundreds of unemployed youths who lost their jobs during the pandemic. One of them posed as an HR employee to conduct their interview. He would ask to deposit Rs 1,875 initially for arranging an online interview and job offer letter. After that they used to induce the victim to further transfer Rs 18,500 on the pretext of security, Rs. 15,700 on pretext of uniform and then Rs 35,000 for ‘verification’," an officer said.
