A Central Crime Branch (CCB) team of the city police on Friday arrested a 38-year-old MBA graduate who posed as an IT employment consultant and cheated students of over Rs. 40 lakh.
After conducting campus interviews at various engineering colleges, he had issued fake offer letters in the name of leading IT firms.
The racketeer from Vellore S. Syed Sallauddin was apprehended following months of investigation and a manhunt. According to sources with the anti-job racket wing of the CCB, Sallauddin had approached many IT job consultancies in Chennai and projected himself as being in contact with leading IT firms that had offices in Chennai.
He collected details of job aspirants registered with the consultants, stating he could attract more applicants. The police said he had cheated some of these aspirants of money.
Sallauddin, pretending to represent various consultancies, also approached a number of engineering colleges, especially in Vellore. “Sallauddin, along with some accomplices, conducted campus interviews in more than three colleges in Vellore in mid-2012. They then issued fake job offer letters in the name of IBM, Accenture and other leading IT firms to students at E Birla consultancy in Ambattur, one of the consultancies from which Sallauddin had collected information,” said an investigating officer.
Sallauddin collected amounts ranging from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 2 lakh from each of the over 40 students who were given the fake call letters. After he absconded with the money, the victims approached P. Naren Kumar (26) of Thirumullaivoyal who runs E Birla.
Naren Kumar lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Police S. George and a probe was ordered by additional commissioner, CCB, R. S. Nallasivam. A CCB team investigated the matter and launched a hunt for Sallauddin and his accomplices. While Sallauddin was apprehended on Friday, the others are still on the run.
City police has advised college authorities to verify the identity of persons conducting campus interviews in their institution. Job consultancies should not divulge information of applicants and students receiving job offers should exercise caution, the police have stated.
