Three from Assam held hostage under garb of job offer in U'khand

As informed by one of the victims Arup Kumar (28), the miscreants contacted them for a job offer and asked them to commence work immediately. However, when the three reached there, they were asked to call up people under the garb of international calls and dupe money from them, which they flatly refused to do.

Rishikesh:Five miscreants assaulted three youngsters from Assam under the garb of offering them jobs at Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. The victims, identified as Arup, Linda and Richard, have alleged that they were held hostage for about three weeks when they refused to accept the job involving duping people via phone calls. They barely managed to escape, while the culprits remain absconding.

As informed by one of the victims Arup Kumar (28), the miscreants contacted them for a job offer in Kunaun village of Yamkeshwar block, and asked them to reach the village and commence work immediately. However, when the three reached there, they were asked to call up people under the garb of international calls and dupe money from them as a part of their job, which they flatly refused to do. The five men then forcefully put the three in a room and pressurized them to accept the offer.

The ordeals went on for about three weeks. The men also took the mobile phones away from the victims. The woman among the three, Linda, was threatened with murder similar to the one of Ankita Bhandari. On Wednesday morning, the three managed to escape from the room where they were locked. However, the culprits soon realized that the victims are escaping and started chasing them.

The chase ended on the Kunaun culvert located on the Chila-barrage road, where the miscreants caught the victims and started beating them. They snatched their phones and threw them in the river. Fortunately, the local people rushed to the site to offer help and the culprits escaped. Some local people had also alerted the police about the incident, but the Laxmanjhula police could reach there only after the miscreants were long gone.

The police have started investigating the matter though the miscreants have not been identified yet, and neither is a case registered in the matter, informed SP Shekhar Suyal. The victims have described the abusers as four men and 1 woman who contacted them as call center operators, offering them a job.