Investigators from the Central Crime Branch (CCB) nabbed a fake job consultancy firm and arrested two people who had duped several gullible job aspirants by luring them with jobs in IT firms.
Based on a tip off from one of the victims, who had posted information on Twitter, a team of police raided the Exalt Consultancy placement service in Shivaji Nagar and arrested accounts manager Mohammed Shakeel and his assistant James.
Joint commissioner of police Hemanth Nimbalkar said that the accused collected details of job aspirants from various portals and lured them with lucrative jobs in IT and other financial companies. They got them to register with for a fee ranging from Rs. 5,000 to 9,000.
Out of 13,947 people registered with the placement service company, only seven got jobs since 2011 – and largely from their own efforts – Mr. Nimbalkar said. Preliminary enquiries revealed that the company has collected Rs 2.75 crore so far, of which Rs 54.33 lakh have been refunded.
The CCB has seized computer accessories, 41 landlines and a card swiping machine. The owner Shabbir Ahmed and senior manager Mohammed Azam are absconding. Social media helped criminal intelligence sleuths nab the racketeers, Mr. Nimbarkar said.
