Price they paid for modelling dreams

LUCKNOW: It was their dreamcome-true moment. Befitting to the occasion, the students of Class 12 of Aminabad Inter College here had reached school all decked up for the modelling audition of a “multi-national firm” scheduled on school campus on Tuesday.

First such event in the school, the participants, if selected, were promised modelling assignments in Mumbai. The stage was managed in the laboratory room with enough lights, cameras and make-up artistes giving the event a grand look.

Little did they know that the audition will turn out to be a ploy by a conman to dupe them.

“The man, aged around 55, who was here for the auditions actually escaped with cash and costly gold ornaments forcing the college principal SL Mishra to lodge an FIR,” said the police.

“The man, who introduced himself as Saleem Qureshi from Mumbai, had approached me on Monday and sought permission for organising a modelling audition on the school campus because he needed some young boys for promotional advertisements of, what he called, a “multinational company”. I allowed him to conduct the audition as he dropped the names of prominent models and film stars with whom he claimed to have worked,” said the principal.

The conman even interacted with some students asking them

A CONMAN DUPED STUDENTS AND TEACHERS OF AMINABAD INTER COLLEGE AND ESCAPED WITH CASH AND GOLD ORNAMENTS IN THE NAME OF MODELLING AUDITION

to come well prepared and properly decked up in good clothes as well as ornaments.

“He selected two-three boys of Class 12 for final round after interacting with many students and also asked a teacher to join the audition,” said additional superintendent of police (ASP) West Vikas Chandra Tripathi.

He said students as well as faculty members never suspected the man and continued to follow his directions.

“Locally hired makeup artists were asked to prepare the boys and a teacher for the final round and suggested the trio to remove gold chains as facial would also be done below the neck. In between, he also borrowed ₹ 4,000 from the laboratory in-charge Sajja-ulHasan to make payment of taxi hired by him and promised to return it by withdrawing money from the ATM,” the ASP said while narrating the entire sequence of incident.

Tripathi said the conman left the school premises stating that he is returning in 10 minutes after arranging lunch for everybody.

He disappeared while the students were getting ready.

When he did not returned for over two hours, the school authorities realised that the man had run away with gold chains of two students and a teacher as well cash from the lab in-charge. To add to it the principal had to pay the makeup artist hired by the conman. The police teams are trying to track the conman by retrieving his video grab from footage of CCTVs installed inside the college.An FIR of fraud and impersonation has already been launched.