Fake domestic help agency busted

NEW DELHI: Seven men and four women who ran placement agencies and cheated people by promising to provide domestic helps have been arrested from Noida and Delhi over the last 24 hours.

Police said the 11 men and women ran an organised racket by opening placement agencies and taking deposits from their clients before sending maids.

Police said the women, who posed as maids, would leave on the first day of their job. Running six different placement agencies, the gang had registered their companies with many helpline numbers and search engines.

Deputy commissioner of police (west) Vijay Kumar said police began probe into a complaint by a Kirti Nagar resident who said he had got in touch with a placement agency and paid an advance of R 25,000 for the maid.

“After paying the money, the agent who had come with the maid dropped her and left the house. Minutes later, the victim found that the maid was also missing. He called on the phone numbers provided by the placement agency but they were either switched off or invalid,” said an officer who investigated the case.

Police said that during investigation, the papers provided by the agency to the victim were found to be fake.

Police analysed the call detail records of the phone numbers and arrested Ganesh and a woman.

“The two confessed that they run a gang that cons people in the name of providing maids. Based on their tip-off, the others were arrested,” the officer said.

Police said i nvestigation revealed they had registered their fake companies on social media sites and online search engines using new phone numbers. Ganesh, who was the kingpin, confessed that he wrote fake reviews on the website to ensure clients choose to do business with him.