A 52-year old Southern Railway employee was arrested recently on charges of cheating job aspirants of huge sums of money.
The suspect, Raman, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB), based on a complaint filed by Dharmaraj of Dindigul.
Dharmaraj came into contact with Raman in 2013, seeking a job for his son, Thamaraiselvan. He paid Rs. 3.5 lakh but got neither the job, nor his money back.
Following this, he approached the Chennai city police with a complaint that was forwarded to the CCB’s job racket wing.
“Raman has been working with Southern Railway as a technician at Perambur Loco works for the past 25 years, and helped many people with jobs. Over the past few years, however, he had been promising aspirants with jobs in grade-D category, including those of gangman and sweeper.
He took Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh from each aspirant who approached him and cheated over 22 persons of nearly Rs. 2 crore,” the officer said.
A few months ago, he went into hiding after the aspirants began questioning him. “Recently, we tracked him down and nabbed him from Villivakkam. He was earlier arrested by the ICF police on a similar complaint and suspended. He joined duty recently, but has been absent from work,” the officer said. Further investigation is on.
In 2014, CCB’s job racket wing arrested 22 persons on similar charges.
“This year, we have nabbed more than seven. People should not fall prey to such conmen. They should not approach brokers for government jobs but apply based on advertisements issued by the government agencies concerned.
For private companies, they should consult the human resources department. They can seek guidance on manpower agencies at police stations,” the officer said.
Raman, cheated over 22 job aspirants of nearly Rs. 2 crore
