Delhi: Fake govt recruitment racket busted, 2 arrested

The matter came to light when the MoRD filed a police complaint in March alleging that two sites under the name NRDRM were carrying fraudulent recruitment advertisements and falsely projecting itself as being a part of the ministry. The site would demand payment from the victims on the pretext of registering them for the recruitment process, said police.

“The scam involved collecting registration fees ranging from Rs 299 to Rs 399 from applicants,” DCP (New Delhi) Devesh Mahla told mediapersons.

An FIR was registered, and a QR code linked to fake websites led the police to a bank account in Assam. According to the police, after the money would land in this account, it would be siphoned off to multiple accounts or withdrawn through ATMs.

“Thereafter, more than a hundred CCTV camera footage of cash withdrawals from ATMs were obtained from various banks and analysed. From the analysis of the footage and with the help of technical surveillance, suspect Ikbal Hussain was traced to Laxmi Nagar, where he stayed at a rented flat in Shakarpur,” Mahla said.

A raid led to the arrest of Hussain, who told the police that he withdrew cash and handed it over to the scam’s mastermind, Rashid Choudhary. A subsequent raid at Choudhary’s house in Laxmi Nagar led to his arrest.

“During questioning, he was initially non-cooperative but later revealed that he was operating a well-structured racket dealing in fake online advertisements for government recruitment,” said the DCP, adding that Choudhury is a habitual cybercriminal.

The police said that Choudhary recruited a team of specialists, including web developers, for creating fake sites and had hired operatives for managing advertisements, and others for procuring bank accounts and SIM cards. The cellphones, SIM cards and bank accounts used by the scammers have been forwarded to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), to be verified with similar complaints and ongoing cases registered across the country, they added.

Hussain and Choudhary were booked under sections 318(4) (cheating) and 319(2) (cheating by personation) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.