4 held for duping people for ‘jobs’ in US, Canada, UAE

MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branchontuesdayhavearrested four people for duping job aspirants online, including senior citizens, on the pretext of providing them jobs in Canada, United States of America (USA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The arrested accused have been identified as Ajay Bhavanishankar Gupta, 23, Cadric Domnic Robert, 23, Vignesh Suresh KC, 22, Sneha Narendra Panchariya, 23. All the accused are residents of Bengaluru in Karnataka.

The incident came to light after a 61-year-old resident of Kandivli approached the crime branch and a case was registered in Kandivli police station in August.

The victim had received a job offer on a social media website and got in touch with Gupta, one of the accused. The victim then sent him his biodata via mail, police said.

Gupta, posing as a senior official in Canada, created a social media group using an international SIM card. He put up several photos of visas of other people on the group claiming that they have provided them jobs in Canada. After gaining the victim’s trust, the accused made him deposit ₹1.54 lakh in different bank accounts as visa fees and other charges, said police inspector Chimaji Adhav of unit 11.

“We started the investigation after the complaint and nabbed Gupta from Goregaon. During inquiry, we found his phone number which he used to contact the victim. The accused seemed to have cheated 20 people to a tune of ₹25 lakh in total,” said Adhav.

During interrogation, he confessed the names of the other accused, staying in Bengaluru, who were later arrested and remanded in police custody.