Man held in Bongaon for duping 80,000 job seekers

Kolkata: A man was arrested from Bongaon for allegedly duping more than 80,000 unemployed people by promising jobs in teaching

sector under Digital India scheme.

According to police, the accused, identified as Raja Mitra of Subhaspally at Bongaon in North 24-Parganas, published an advertisement on December 9, 2017, in a newspaper inviting aspirants to apply for employment opportunities.

In the advertisement, it was mentioned that 14,265 teachers and assistants will be recruited in 'Central Junior Schools and E Digital India Corporation'. Also, two websites —www.edigitalindia.wb.com' and www.edigitalindiawb.co.in were mentioned in the advertisement where candidates need to register and submit the registration fees online.

Seeing the advertisement, more than 80,000 job seekers applied for the posts and submitted registration fees.

After almost a year when none of the applicants were called for tests or interview, they tried to contact the toll free number provided in the advertisement but they found the number did not existed. In January, 2018, a woman from Baguiati lodged a complaint at the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime police station regarding the matter. During investigation police found the websites which were mentioned in the advertisement have been deleted. Later, by getting some information from the web domain providers police identified Mitra.

Sensing danger a few months ago Mitra filed an application for anticipatory bail in Calcutta High Court, which was rejected recently. Later, on Monday night Mitra was arrested. During the investigation, police found that he even forged the logo of 'Digital India' and used as a bait to attract the unemployed people who fell into his trap.

Police found Rs 81.48 lakh in nine bank accounts, which have been blocked. Several ATM cards, cheque books and mobile phones were also seized from him.