The Economic Offences Wing is on the look out for the accused who ran an online recruitment agency and cheated two people of ₹19 lakh by promising them lucrative jobs. A former pharmaceutical manager had registered the complaint with Panvel City police.
The complainant, Raju Katkade, a resident of Panvel, alleged that an online job recruitment agency had cheated him of ₹18.5 lakh by promising him a job of general manager in the quality control department of a pharmaceutical company.
According to the FIR, Mr. Katkade received a call on January 26 from a woman who introduced herself as Priya Malhotra from Global Vision Consultant International. Ms. Malhotra promised him a job with a lucrative salary.
The next day, another person attached to the recruitment agency called and introduced himself as Karan. He asked Mr. Katkade to deposit ₹6,962 in the agency’s account. On January 28, Mr. Katkade received an email from info@jobsdesire.in asking for his resume, experience certificates, qualification certificates, salary slips and other documents.
“After collecting all required documents, the agency started asking him money under various heads,” a police official from Panvel City police station said.
Online transactions
The first installment of ₹14,160 was demanded for profile verification and ₹47,200 for the code activation required to apply for the job. According to police, all payments were made online to the agency’s account.
“Mr. Katkade was then asked to pay ₹1.40 lakh in three installments to generate another secret number for job application,” the officer said. The accused then demanded ₹16.49 lakh from Mr. Katkade between February and March as GST, test fees, interview fees and profile verification charges.
After depositing ₹18.50 lakh, Mr. Katkade realised that the agency had stopped contacting him. He then learnt that his friend Hemnat Therey was also cheated in similar way of ₹91,992. They then approached the Navi Mumbai police.
After a preliminary enquiry by the Economic Offences Wing, a case was registered against the unidentified accused with Panvel City police under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC and relevant sections of the IT Act.
