Duped of ₹8 lakh, man starts own job racket to recover his money

RAWENDER WAS PROMISED A JOB WITH THE FCI BUT WHEN HE REALISED HE HAD BEEN DUPED, HE USED THE EXPERIENCE TO TRICK OTHER ASPIRANTS

In 2014, Rawender Singh, 30, fell victim to a job racket and lost ₹8 lakh.

However, instead of despairing over the loss of money, he decided to use the experience to start cheating other unemployed victims — on a larger scale and in a planned manner.

By the time Rawender and his three associates landed in the police net on Tuesday, they had cheated over 50 people of ₹4-8 lakh each in the last three years, said Nupur Prasad, DCP (Shahdara). Rawender and his associates would promise jobs with CBI, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Railways. But they did not disappear with the money.

They would organise the entire process of getting a government job — from filling a form to getting the employment letter. “To come across as convincing, the racketeers organised fake competitive exams on OMR sheets and job training for the candidates,” said the DCP.

Rawender, alleged mastermind, is a native of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. He got married in May 2014 when he was working with a small private firm. But the additional expenses that came with marriage forced him to look out for a government job.

It was at that time that Rawender met a man named Abhishek Pandey who promised to get him a grade C job with the FCI. Pandey too had an elaborate network and tricked Rawender into believing that he was actually being given a job. “Rawender went through the fake job process for six months and lost ₹8 lakh to Pandey. By the end of it, he realised he was only being tricked and there was no FCI job waiting for him,” said an investigator.

When he realised he was not going to get his money back, he did not approach the police. Instead, he decided to use his experience to begin duping aspirants like him. He roped in his cousin, Ankit Singh, and some other friends.

The men would allegedly use WhatsApp groups to coordinate among themselves as they scouted for potential victims.