On the heels of arresting four persons who allegedly conned people by offering recruitment overseas, the Ernakulam Rural police have formed a special team to trace the remaining members of the job racket.
“The racket, with its base in Bengaluru, has members from different States and even outside the country . A seven-member team headed by Biju Mon, Deputy Police Superintendent, Muvattupuzha, is probing whether they had carried out similar frauds in the State,” said Sivan Kutty, Circle Inspector, Piravom.
The investigation team had recovered 16 ATM cards and 23 SIM cards during a raid at the racket’s hideout last week. A probe is now on with the help of the police cyber cell to identify the locations from which these ATM cards were used, besides details of the phone calls made using the SIM cards. The police have also approached the banks in which the racket opened accounts, seeking details of transactions made over the past few months.
Local links
The investigation team, meanwhile, received another complaint against the accused from Thrissur though it has been unable to establish the racket’s involvement in the case. “The details of bank accounts furnished by the complainant did not match with the available evidence. This suggests that they are operating on an even larger scale, having local links in several States and support at different levels,” the official said.
The police had earlier arrested four persons, including a Ghana national identified as Elol Derek, for allegedly duping a woman doctor of ₹11.5 lakh by offering her a job at a French hospital. The trap was laid by advertising vacancies at the hospital on an online job portal.
The fraud came to light when the victim approached the French Embassy in New Delhi using a ‘gate pass’ forged by the racket.
Meanwhile, the investigation team has also found that the Ghana national was overstaying in the country and has booked him under Section 14 (a) and (b) of the Foreigners Act. “We are yet to get any details of his criminal antecedents though he told us during an interrogation that more foreign nationals were involved in the racket. A probe is on to identify them,” the Circle Inspector said.
