Odisha EOW cracks fake job racket operating in 17 states
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Bhubaneswar: Odisha Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) apprehended the alleged mastermind of an inter-state job racket from Bihar.
The accused, identified as Dharampal Singh of Bihar's Gopalganj district, was apprehended by an EOW team and is being brought to Bhubaneswar, according to an EOW press release.
Singh is one of the main accused and the mastermind behind this job ring that operates in at least 17 states. The racket also operated in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Rajsthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Assam, Himanchal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Pumjab, and Haryana, in addition to Odisha.
Singh is the Secretary of the "Gramin Rojgar Kalyan Sansthan," which has its registered office in New Delhi and branches in Mumbai, Bhopal, and Dehradun.
The con artists had created a website that looked like it came from the government and displayed job postings.
"Gramin Rojgar Kalyan Sansthan" (GRKS) invited applications for various jobs such as district and block coordinator, computer operator, block surveyor, and so on, specifying educational requirements and remuneration for each post. The advertisement also included the URL www.grks.org, and job applicants were required to apply only through the website.
To gain the trust of job seekers, they also offered reservations and reduced fees, as is customary for government jobs. They also place ads in local newspapers.
They used to hold online exams and interviews as well. They used to provide a syllabus for each post on the website. They also warned job seekers about job fraud on their website. Attracted by such advertisements that resembled those of the government, lakhs of unemployed youths across the country applied for the positions beginning in 2020 by paying the required application fees.
Despite being forced to take an online examination, none of the applicants were given appointments and were purposefully disqualified.
In this manner, GRKS misappropriated crores of rupees in application fees from unsuspecting job seekers. The money collected from the candidates ended up in various accounts that were eventually controlled/managed by the arrested accused, who also happens to be the Secretary of Gramin Rojgar Kalyan Sansthan.
They also used to hold bogus scholarship online exams. The scammers used numerous shell/sister companies to route and launder the stolen funds.
Approximately Rs 6.6 crores in transactions, fraud, and money laundering have been traced as of now. The EOW added that further investigation is underway.
