Two held for duping 2,000 job aspirants
Bhubaneswar: The Sambalpur Police on Thursday arrested two fraudsters on the charge of duping around 2,000 people of around Rs 2 crore on the pretext of providing them jobs for sanitation work at various government offices in Sambalpur Municipality areas.
The accused persons have been identified as Samrat Ray alias Rahul, 32, of Kshetrajpur and Padmalaya Tandi alias Padmavati, 34, of Burla in Sambalpur district. The fraudsters had been duping the gullible victims through a fake company ‘RMAX Pvt Ltd’.
Speaking to mediapersons, Sambalpur SP Mukesh Kumar Bhamoo said that after receiving information regarding the fraud from various sources, the Sambalpur district police had kept an eye on the activities of the fraudsters for the last couple of months.
On Wednesday, the police personnel carried out a raid during a suspicious job mela and detained the accused Samrat and Padmalaya. “They initially held small meetings at the village level with the attendance of 15 to 20 persons.
Later, they started organising large meetings with the number of participants increasing every time. Yesterday, we picked them up and during interrogation, we ascertained that they were involved in the fraud,” said SP Bhamoo.
The Sambalpur SP also said that Rs 62 lakh along with two vehicles have been recovered from the possession of the fraudsters. The accused persons allegedly formed a fake company named “RMAX Pvt. Ltd.” and falsely claimed that it had been authorised to provide appointments for sanitation work.
They organised meetings at various areas and collected Rs 12,000 from each individual, promising to offer them employment with daily wages of Rs 400. When the complainant and others asked for appointment letters and other official documents, the accused persons failed to provide them, citing excuses that the documents would be given later.
During verification, it was found that the fake firm has not been engaged by any government agency. They have been involved in criminal activities since October 2024.
