Airline job racket smashed after hundreds are duped

Police acted on a complaint after a woman approached Palam Village police station and lodged a complaint about being duped of more than Rs 71,000. She was looking for an opportunity and received an email from an Air India email address regarding a job appointment with the airline.

New Delhi: Delhi Police has busted a job racket in the name of Air India that duped hundreds of job seekers across the country and amassed lakhs of rupees. Three accused, including a woman have been arrested.

The gang used to lure job seekers who lost jobs during the pandemic and asked them to deposit money to get job in the national carrier.

Fake job letters and interviews were also conducted to win their trust.

The police moved in after a woman approached Palam Village police station and lodged a complaint about being duped more than Rs 71,000. She told the police that she had been with Zomato since 2017 but lost her job due to the pandemic. She was looking for an opportunity and received an email from the purported Air India email address regarding a job appointment with the airline.

As desired she shared her resume and deposited Rs 1,875 at first. She then received an offer letter and was asked to deposit money for uniform, verification among others. However, she smelled a rat.

"On the basis of technical analysis, cyber-surveillance swooped down on a man named Shadab Malik resident of Hindon Vihar, Ghaziabad, UP who was earlier arrested in similar kind of offence by Uttarakhand Police.

"Malik was running a call centre from S-Block, Sector-12, Noida. He along with his accomplice Kumud Ranjan Kamlesh and Priyanka Goswami were arrested," said Devender Arya, DCP South West Delhi.

Malik along with his associates had made an employer account on Job ad portal www.shine.com using a fake identity and obtained job seekers details including their email addresses, name and phone numbers.

Kamesh registered multiple accounts in his name and also obtained SIM Cards of many telecom service providers. Thereafter the accused started contacting the job seekers through email and telephonic calls. They contacted thousands of job seekers and availed the opportunity to dupe the unemployed

Then posing as HR, Interviewer and Verification Officers they duped the victims of thousands of rupees.

"Till now 12 forged bank accounts of the accused persons have been identified. The gang has been live for 5 months. Approximately, Rs 60 lakh was credited in these fake accounts, the officer added.

Further probe was underway.

IANS REPORT