Mumbai: Trio nabbed for cheating over 100 railway job aspirants

Rajesh Kumar Tanti, Manish Singh Rai and Seema Sunil Pawar

After cheating over a hundred railway job aspirants with a unique modus operandi, a racket being run by a trio has finally been thrown off-track. The Crime Branch's Unit XI arrested the three accused on Thursday, over a month-and-a-half after a city-based victim filed an FIR. The accused have been identified as Rajesh Kumar Tanti, 28, resident of Shekhpura, Bihar, Manishsingh Rai, 39, resident of Katihar, Bihar, and Seema Sunil Pawar, 30, resident of Andheri. They were produced in court today and remanded in police custody.Commenting on the arrests, Akbar Pathan, DCP, detection said, "We received complaints about this racket, after which I asked my team to work on the case. We found the root of the crime and arrested the accused from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. There have cheated over 100 job aspirants from across India."

How the racket unfolded

Following their arrests, the accused revealed how they entrapped the aspirants. One of them would pose as a chief personnel officer from the railways to gain the aspirants' trust. Later, the accused promised to arrange jobs for them. This assured job, along with three months of training came at a sum of Rs 7 lakh. The investigating team believes many more people are involved in this racket, who were the first to approach aspirants known to them as friends or relatives. Once a target was confirmed, they would be taken to a lecture that waxed eloquent about the benefits of a job in the railways.

Victims were lured into the three-month 'training' course, for which they paid lakhs. Once it was over, they were sent for a paid 'internship'. Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

Interested candidates would then be willing to pay up. Once the fees were in, they'd be taken to 'training' classes, where other accused would pose as senior railway officials and explain the candidates the ins and outs of the job. Since the classes seemed very real, none of the candidates got suspicious. This training course went on for three months, after which they were given paid internships of sorts at a railway station. All they had to do was go there and observe how actual railway employees worked.

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Go back home

Before being sent to the station, which was Chhapra in Bihar, the accused would make fake identity cards and provide candidates with a letter of employment as well as a salary slip once the internship was over. During this period, they were asked to fill a railway workbook, after which they were told to clear their remaining fees. After the month ended, the aspirants were asked to go back home. They were told they would be informed later about job postings. However, six months passed by, but there were no calls about any employment opportunities. Calls from worried candidates about an update were ignored.

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Once the candidates completed the internships at Chhapra in Bihar, they were asked to go back home and told they'd be informed about job postings. Months passed by without any calls. Calls from the worried candidates were then ignored by the accused

Active in several states

When some of the aspirants realised they were conned by people posing as railway recruiters, one of them, who hails from Mumbai, approached the city police and lodged an FIR against the accused. After noting down the victim's statement, police registered an FIR under sections 406, 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 472, 473, 475, and 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66 (C) and 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act. Chimaji Adhav, senior inspector, crime branch, said, "The accused were active in Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and several other states. They were operating out of Varanasi, from where our team nabbed them."

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