State STF busts job racket, kingpin held

LUCKNOW : Uttar Pradesh Special Task force (STF) claimed to have unearthed a gang of fraudsters after the arrest of its kingpin from Lucknow’s Vibhuti Khand area here on Sunday, said senior police officials. They said the gang had duped several lakhs of rupees from unemployed youths assuring them jobs in different government departments and secretariat.

The officials said six people had turned up against the accused from Barabanki, Lakhimpur Kheri, Azamgarh, Ballia, Varanasi and Lucknow districts from whom the accused had fraudulently taken over ₹66 lakh in the past few months.

In a press note issued by the UP STF, the officials said Jaunpur resident Dilip Rai Balwani, the kingpin of the racket, used to operate this gang from Lucknow with the help of his brother Manjeet Kumar. They said the police were carrying out raids in search of his brother.

While sharing their modus operandi, a senior police official said the fraudsters used to first make job aspirants fill forms of different jobs, and thereafter would conduct fake interviews and even issue fake appointment letters for the post of review officers at secretariat, clerks, computer operators and office assistants at different corporations and other departments.

He said the accused used to charge ₹5 lakh to ₹20 lakh assuring jobs for different posts. He said initial probe suggested that the fraudsters had duped several lakhs from over 200 job aspirants. He said most of the victims preferred to not approach the police after being threatened with dire consequences by the fraudsters. He said the accused was arrested in connection with two FIRs lodged for similar types of fraud with Vibhuti Khand police station. Moreover, 10 cases of fraud are registered against the accused at different police stations in Lucknow and other districts.