Police arrest two who duped job aspirants of ₹26.35 lakhs
MUMBAI: The Saki Naka police have arrested two accused wanted since March last year in connection with a job racket and duping job aspirants of ₹65.35 lakhs.
According to the police, the accused were running a placement agency Far East Pvt Ltd in Saki Naka in December last year. From then to March 2021, the four accused collected a total of ₹65.35 lakh from various placement agents, promising to get their clients well-paying overseas jobs. Then, the accused suddenly shut shop and vanished.
In June this year, the police had traced and arrested two of the four - Sachin Joshi (31) and Sudhanshu Shekhar (39), charging them with cheating. Two others, Asgar Ali (36) and Indrajeet Sonkar (45), were still on the run.
“We had been on their trail ever since and last week, we received information that Ali, who had fled to Nepal, was coming to Navi Mumbai to start another placement agency. Accordingly, we obtained his current number through informants and on Sunday traced him to Koparkhairane. His arrest was followed by Sonkar’s arrest from Kandivali,” said API Arjun Kudale, Saki Naka police station.
Kudale added that their interrogation also revealed involvement of a fifth accused, a woman named Kusum Keer (27), who was brought in for questioning on Tuesday. However, due to medical issues, she was not arrested and released after being issued a notice.
“The accused have been running similar rackets in different areas of Maharashtra for years. They have cases registered against them with the Aarey and Kasturba Marg police stations in Mumbai and the Tulinj police station in Nalasopara. They would set up legitimate, registered placement agencies, gather clients through freelance placement agents and decamp once they had collected a significant amount,” said Kudale.
Ali and Sonkar have been remanded to police custody till Wednesday.