Two men from Noida, who have been arrested, had promised the civil engineer with an Agripada-based company a job as a construction head with a major consultancy firm
The Agripada police have arrested two people for conning a civil engineer of Rs 1.67 lakh on the pretext of getting him a job abroad. The accused, identified as Kapil Chaudhary (35) and Manish Kumar alias Arman (20), are from Noida.
ADVERTISEMENT
Journalism con job: For Rs 1,100, an all-access fraud press card
Kapil Chaudhary and Manish Kumar (below) made the engineer fork out the money without even revealing what his salary would be
Speaking to mid-day, the victim, Padmanabh Karadkhedkar, a resident of Mira Road who works as a civil engineer at a company in Agripada, said he got a call in August 2014, asking if he was looking for a job.
“The caller, who claimed to be from a company called Azienda Portfolio Pvt Ltd, a placement firm, said they have openings for jobs in India and abroad. When I said I was looking for something in Canada, he offered me a job as construction head with a consultancy firm in the country.
Also Read: Beware the call for a job at 'Sarkari Marathi call centre'
He told me the company was going to open 35 new offices in Canada and Singapore and, while I would be placed in Canada, I would be given charge of the offices in both the countries. The caller asked me to visit a website www.jobsopening.in to complete the formalities.”
Karadkhedkar visited the website and was asked to pay Rs 3,500 and then R20,000 through online transactions. He was then told that there would be a telephonic interview and then an interview through video conferencing ahead of the selection.
He then got a call from the placement company saying a senior official would call him for the telephonic interview. Karadkhedkar got the call and the person on the other end asked him basic questions before telling him that he had been selected. Karadkhedkar then asked about his salary details and the person said it would be decided after the video interview was done.
‘Visa’ costs
After a few days, the civil engineer got a call saying that a written test would be conducted. “After the written test, they said no video interview was needed and that I had been selected.
Navi Mumbai: Promising job in Kuwait, agent flees with passport, money of several aspirants
They probably avoided the video interview as they didn’t want me to see their faces. They took money from me nine times through online transactions between August and September, including the initial payments, adding up to Rs 1.67 lakh,” said Karadkhedkar.
“They told me that I would get the visa in October, then December and then February 2015. The delay made me suspicious and I asked them to give my money back. They started making excuses, like they were in the process of shifting their offices, to put off giving the money. Finally, I went to the Agripada police station on May 16 and registered an FIR.”
Cop speak
Inspector Raghunath Mahale, from Agripada police station, said, “The accused were arrested from Meerut and brought to Mumbai last week. They were traced based on the bank account that Karadkhedkar had transferred the money to and the address that Azienda Portfolio was registered at.
We have received reports of the duo having conned people from other states using the same modus operandi. Both of them are the main conspirators.” The duo have been booked under Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, along with various sections of the IT Act.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
