Duo held for duping 26 job aspirants of Rs 15 Lakh

The Bhayandar police has nabbed two recruitment agents for allegedly duping 26 job aspirants to the tune of more than Rs 15 lakh after promising jobs to them in Kuwait and other countries in West Asia.

The arrested duo, Saifuddin Abdul Wajid Shaikh alias Kundu (40) and Mansur Sattar Munshi (48) was on the run for over 18 months. The police suspect the men were part of an inter-state network specialising in duping job aspirants. According to the police, the accused, along with a few of their accomplices, had floated a dubious placement firm called ‘Orea Fame Solutions’ in Bhayandar (west). In November-2014, the agency had issued advertisements in multi-lingual newspapers across the country offering overseas jobs. The vacancies were for plumbers, tailors, carpenters, welders and painters.

Aspirants from Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat who responded to the advertisements were tricked into paying around Rs 68,000 each for medical tests, documentation fees, visa processing and air-tickets. Later, the accused shut down their agency and stopped all operations without intimating any of the applicants. The e-tickets, visas and appointment letters issued by the fraudsters also turned out to be fake.

A case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code had been registered against the accused in February, 2015. Since then they had managed to evade the police. While Kundu had landed in the Mumbai police for a similar crime in Dharavi last week, a police team apprehended Munshi at Mira Road after receiving a specific tip-off on Monday.