The Delhi Police Crime Branch has busted a gang who were cheating youths seeking jobs in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) by employing a unique modus operandi.
The gang was being run by seven members in active collusion of two employees of the Ministry of Rural Development, who were posted with multi-tasking section of the Ministry. The duo was instrumental in getting the keys of the rooms of officers, who were on leave, posted with Krishi Bhawan. The prospective candidates were called in those rooms to give impression that interview was genuine and they readily agreed to pay a whopping sum of Rs 22 lakh for being appointed as Assistant Engineer with ONGC.
The police have recovered 27 mobile phones, two laptops, 10 cheque books, fake voter ID card and 45 mobile sim cards used by the accused persons for cheating.
“The accused have been identified as Jagdish Raj (58), Sandeep Kumar (31), Wasim (28), Ankit Gupta (32), Vishal Goel (28), Suman (32) and Kunal Kishore (32). A case was registered after a complaint received from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) alleging fake recruitment by unscrupulous persons,” said Rajiv Ranjan, Additional Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch.
“During investigation, it was revealed that the victims received e-mails from ONGC's official mail account and they were interviewed at Krishi Bhawan. The victims were introduced to a man named Randhir Singh alias Kunal Kishore who took Rs 22 Lakhs from the victims for getting them jobs in ONGC. But later on, all the contacts of Randhir Singh went off the radar,” said Ranjan.
“The mastermind Kishore was nabbed by police from Laxmi Nagar. Based on Kishore's revelations, other six accused were also arrested including Sandeep and Jagdish, the two employees of Ministry of Rural Development who are in government job,” said Ranjan.
Explaining the modus operandi, Additional CP said that Ravi Chandra, who runs a consultancy firm in Hyderabad used to choose victims who were ready to pay money to secure Government jobs and introduced them to Kishore who enticed victims by claiming that his brother-in-law is an ONGC employee and has good influence on ONGC hierarchy.
“He collected the education certificates and money from them and prepared fake interview call letters with the help of his associate Wasim who is an expert web designer. Wasim also prepared fake voter cards for Kishore who assumed the identity as mentioned in the fake ID card. These emails were sent with the help of Vishal Goel who is a software engineer and has prepared an email spoofing system for the gang,” said Ranjan.
“The gang used to call victims at Krishi Bhawan so that there is no doubt created among the victims. Jagdish Raj, an employee in ministry of Rural Development would arrange the office of any such officer who was on leave and his other associate Sandeep Kumar ensured the entry of victims. Suman and Ankit Gupta who posed as employees of ONGC used to conduct fake interview and after that they used to give joining letters to the victims. Kishore used to collect money from victims after they have received joining letter,” said Ranjan.
“Considering the modus operandi and the interrogation conducted there is a possibility of more victims of this syndicate. Further investigation is going on,” Ranjan added.
