The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Monday busted a huge job fraud racket in which at least 200 job seekers of Odisha were allegedly duped. The two main accused arrested in this connection have been identified as Rajkishore Pattnaik of Gujudiha and Arun Mohanty of Narasinghapur village in Balasore district.
Senior EOW officials said that the accused claimed themselves to be journalists. Both the accused have been arrested based on the complaint filed by one of the victims, identified as Kumudini Sahoo of Bhubaneswar. The victim had alleged that the accused Rajkishore Pattnaik, Arun Mohanty and Bhawani Shankar Das duped her to the tune of Rs 8.15 lakhs by promising a government job.
The accused had provided and showed her some forged documents including appointment letters, logo and seal of the Odisha government. The EOW in a release said that the Kumudini was promised a clerk post at Raj Bhawan, the official residence of Odisha Governor, for a monthly salary of Rs 34,000. The accused had demanded Rs 6 lakh for the job and the victim paid Rs 2 lakh as advance.
“Only after the accused Rajkishore Pattnaik started avoiding the victim, she contacted accused Arun Mohanty and Bhawani Shankar Das. Arun later assured her to arrange a job within a week and demanded Rs 7 lakhs. The victim paid the amount but did not get any job,” said the EOW.
Tip Of The Ice-berg
The accused have also allegedly cheated Rs 1.05 lakh from one Sushant Kumar Muduli for the post of school peon, Rs.4.50 lakhs from one Deepak Kumar Nayak for the post of peon in the Khordha Collectorate and Rs 2 lakhs from one Dipu Biswal for the job of peon in Raj Bhawan, Bhubaneswar in a similar fashion.
Seizures Made So Far
During investigation, it has been found that the accused duped hundreds of job aspirants of Odisha by showing them forged/fabricated Government letters/ logo/ seal/ selection list etc.
During the search of houses of both the scammers, hundreds of incriminating and forged documents, like government appointment letters, joining letters and seals of Lok Seva Bhawan, and the Secretariat have been seized along with several resumes, bio-data, mark sheets, application forms, and fake appointment letters of candidates for different posts like peon, clerk, fireman in different departments of Odisha government including the Raj Bhawan, Education Department, Energy Department, Secretariat, Traffic Police, Excise Department, Kendriya Vidyalaya, and Income Tax Department, among others.