The National Health Authority has registered a complaint with the police. (Representational)
Four people were arrested for allegedly duping over 4,000 people by promising them jobs under the Centre's flagship Ayushman Bharat scheme, officials said today.
The accused had created a fake website on the internet that resembled the government's Ayushman Bharat website and placed advertisements for thousands of jobs. They charged aspirants Rs 300 to Rs 500 as registration fees, the police said.
The National Health Authority, the agency that administers the health assurance scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, registered a complaint with the police alleging that it received grievances from the public regarding an "unscrupulous agency" which was portraying a false association with the scheme.
The accused have been identified as Umesh, 37, Rajat Singh, 33, Gaurav, 26, and Seema Rani Sharma, 33.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy said the arrests were made on the basis of technical analysis while a laptop, four mobile phones along with ATM cards were recovered from the possession of the accused.
The details of the fake website were obtained and the payment gateway and the bank account linked with it analysed during investigation. "During interrogation, the accused revealed that they hatched a conspiracy to dupe people in the name of Ayushman Scheme of the government. For this, they first formed Ayushman Yojana Trust and one of the accused Rajat Singh, being a web designer, designed a website like a genuine government website," the official said.
The police said further investigation is underway and efforts are being made to find the remaining accused.