COPS HEAD TO VISAKHAPATNAM TO PROBE NAVY JOB SCAM CASE

MUMBAI: A team from the Mumbai crime branch will be heading to Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, to investigate the case wherein at least six people were cheated of ₹36 lakh.

Retired Army captain Imendri Trinetra, 49, who ran Saraswathi Defence Academy — a bogus defence academy in Vishakapatnam — was arrested in Mumbai on Saturday after cheating several aspirants of getting a job in the Navy. He was produced in court and has been remanded in police custody till Saturday.

Dilip Sawant, deputy commissioner of police, crime branch, said, “We have written to the Army headquarters in Delhi to check whether Trinetra was even a genuine Army captain.”

The team sent to Visakhapatnam will search Trinetra’s office and residence, Sawant said. They will also examine the accused’s bank accounts and question members of the ‘academy.’

In January, the principal controllers of defence accounts (Navy) in Mumbai released an ad for the post of canteen attendants. Trinetra approached candidates in his academy and promised them the job.

He conducted fake online tests and medical tests, for which he took a fee of ₹2 lakh each from six exam candidates. Trinetra then gave bogus appointment letters to them, and charged a fee of ₹4 lakh each. He directed the victims to report to the Colaba office on Saturday.