It is suspected that the accused cheated over 100 people, police said. (Representational)
The Goa Police have arrested a man from Mumbai for allegedly cheating more than 100 people in Goa to the tune of Rs 13 lakh by offering them jobs abroad, an official said on Thursday.
The accused, Aniket Gaikwad, belonging to Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, was arrested from Mumbai on Wednesday, a police spokesperson said.
Based on a complaint by one of the victims, the Old Goa police registered a case on June 3 against Gaikwad and another accused Savio Da Silva for allegedly posing as recruitment agents and taking nearly Rs 13 lakh from the victims by promising them jobs in countries like the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand and on passenger and cargo ships with foreign companies, the official said.
A number of job aspirants got lured with the offer.
The accused persons took money, passport and other documents from them. They also called the victims to Mumbai for some training and document verification, but failed to provide the jobs as promised, the official said.
Gaikwad later discontinued communication with the victims.
Initially, the accused returned money to some of the victims, but they later stopped taking their calls and fled, the police said.
The Old Goa police gathered information about the accused over the last five days and two teams searched for them in Margao and Ponda areas, the official said.
A team led by sub-inspector Laureen Sequeira visited Panvel, Belapur in Navi Mumbai, as well as Dadar, Kurla and Mulund areas of Mumbai in search of the accused.
Finally, Gaikwad was traced and arrested with the help of Deonar police in Mumbai, the official said.
The accused was subsequently brought to Goa on transit remand and placed under arrest, he said.
It is suspected that the accused cheated more than 100 people of a very huge amount, the police official said, adding a probe was on into the case.
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