August 26, 2009 12:24:20 am
A man who allegedly duped over 4,000 people of Rs 1.25 crore by promising them jobs has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi polices Crime Branch.
The police said Santosh Kumar Sharma (38),who was arrested from the Dwarka area on August 18,was operating an inter-state racket and duped unemployed youths from Bihar,UP,Haryana and Rajasthan by promising them permanent jobs in a trust run in the name of a fake multinational company American Express Way.
He asked people to deposit Rs 1 lakh each as security and training fee for getting a confirmed job with a salary of Rs 9,500 per month. He told them the job would be permanent and include all benefits, a senior police officer said.
Sharma reportedly hired a few people for his company and asked them to bring in more people. They had their office in Hauz Khas and published advertisements in newspapers offering jobs to unemployed youth.
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After sometime,when no jobs were given and the cheques given to the applicants bounced,they started approaching Sharma,who had by then closed his office and disappeared.
The police began to investigate the role of Sharma and his wife Ratna Sharma after a complaint was filed by one Ravinder Singh Chauhan.
During investigation,the police scrutinised the accounts of the trust set up by Sharma,allegedly for spreading awareness about AIDS,and found that the money collected in the name of the trust was being used by the accused to fund a lavish lifestyle.
The police said Sharma,who did his graduation from Agra and gave tuitions to earn a living,drugged his domestic help and took nude pictures of her in 2005,after she told him she was leaving the job. He was arrested and sent to judicial custody for 50 days in that case. After coming out of jail,he started the business of duping people on the false pretext of providing jobs.
Sharmas bank accounts,with crores of rupees in them,have been seized by the police,who are also probing the matter for evidence against his wife,Ratna,who is absconding.
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