This may turn out to be a nationwide racket in which unemployed graduates are lured with promise of a Central government job and duped by a well-organised syndicate.
Sunayna Shedge, 20, from Badlapur in Maharashtra’s Thane district, received a call from a person offering her a job under ‘Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojana,’ a fictitious scheme.
“I was interviewed on telephone and was told that the Central government had appointed me under this scheme,” she told The Hindu . Ms. Shedge had uploaded her resume on the government employment exchange in Thane and also on various job websites.
The appointment letter arrived on June 18 and the envelope had ‘J-114/4, Vartman Complex, Janakpuri, New Delhi-110058’ as address on it. The letter with the Indian government emblem mentioned ‘Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojana’ by ‘Swarna Jayanti Sahkarita Vibhag, Employment Exchange Office. It was signed by a person called Sanjay Bhardwaj, who claimed, was its director.
The letter promised her a job with monthly salary of Rs. 30,000 as customer care representative in the centre of SJRY under the Mahatma Gandhi Rashtriya Rojgar Yojana (MGRRY). She was asked to pay Rs. 13,850 as deposit as she would be given a laptop and a mobile phone for the task assigned.
The caller asked the family to deposit only cash.
As The Hindu verified, all the details mentioned in the letter are either non-existent or false, including the names of government schemes. The Shedges deposited the money in a State Bank of India account (number 34958679057) on June 22. It belonged to an individual called Yash Kumar. The other account – bearing the number 34960687837 — belonged to Suraj Kumar. The family became wary when the person called again, in asking them to deposit more money as job security.
“We realised that we were conned and my daughter shouted at him over the phone. Since then we haven’t heard from them,” said Mr. Shedge.
Mobiles switched offAs The Hindu verified two account numbers given to the family by the callers, sources in the SBI confirmed that the address on these accounts belonged to Tehsil Pataudi of Gurgaon. The Hindu tried to contact the person on the numbers given, but both mobiles were switched off.
As this newspaper accessed past transactions from both accounts, it was revealed that there were several transactions worth lakhs of rupees and interestingly the money would be withdrawn minutes after they were deposited. A senior Thane police officer on the condition anonymity admitted that it is a clear case of fraud by highly educated criminals with possible involvement of government officials.
