A lawyer, S. Jagannathan, 58, who allegedly fleeced several job aspirants of several crores of rupees, after promising them jobs in the Thiruvananthapuram Airport and other Central government institutions, has been arrested from Chennai.
According to A. Pramod Kumar, Assistant Commissioner (Control Room), Jagannathan, a native of Varkala and who used to practise in different courts in the Vanchiyoor court complex, had allegedly been fleecing youngsters from 2010. He had promised them jobs including as junior executives to peons in the airport and several Central government institutions. He had come to know of vacancies through job openings posted by these institutions on their websites and had convinced the aspirants by showing them these posts and then taken money from them. There were victims like Kishore of Kottiyam who reportedly paid him Rs.22 lakh, while Satheesh Kumar, an ex-service personnel from Pappanamcode had reportedly paid him Rs.17 lakh for a job for his wife in the airport, police said.
The accused had managed to further convince his victims by giving them blank cheques, which he said could be given back once they got the jobs.
However, when the jobs did not come and the cheques bounced, the victims approached the police, who said there were similar cases registered against Jagannathan in the Valiyathura, Museum, Varkala, Kottiyam, Paravur, Kanjirapally and Pathanamthitta police stations. More complainants were expected to come forward, police said, adding that a special team constituted to trace Jagannathan, who went absconding, had managed to nab him from Chennai after a three-month investigation.
