Job Racket Busted. 2 Arrested, 544 Passports Recovered, 23 Accounts Frozen

Police have arrested a key accused in a Mumbai-operated job racket and his aide from West Bengal for their alleged involvement in duping hundreds of unemployed men by promising them jobs abroad, an official said on Wednesday.

The police recovered 482 passports of job aspirants during a search at the key accused's residence, taking the number of such travel documents seized so far to 544, he said.

The Mumbai police's crime branch have arrested the key accused, Patit Paban Punin Haldar (36), a resident of North 24 Parganas in West Bengal, and his aide Mohammed Illiyas Shaikh Mansoori (49), a native of Kamarhati in that state, he said.

With this, the Mumbai police have arrested seven accused in the case so far.

Based on specific information, Unit-5 of the crime branch laid a trap in West Bengal and arrested the duo, said the official, adding the probe team also recovered 482 passports of job aspirants from Haldar's residence, he said.

The police have so far recovered 544 passports and frozen 23 bank accounts which were used for financial transactions as gang members had collected Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 from each unemployed man to give them jobs in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar, Russia and Azerbaijan, said the official.

The accused persons had opened offices in the name of a placement agency at CSMT in South Mumbai and suburban Andheri and duped hundreds of unemployed men by offering them jobs abroad, he said.

They had issued fraudulent offer letters and bogus visas to the job aspirants and disappeared after collecting money, leaving the victims in the lurch, said the official.

The police launched an investigation and arrested the accused, seven so far, after an offence was registered at the Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Marg Police Station.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)