KOLKATA: Eight persons were arrested for allegedly duping several job seekers on the pretext of providing employment in an organisation under the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) at Memari in East Burdwan on Monday.
The fraudsters had used a certificate which was claimed to have been given by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to convince the applicants about their existence. Police are yet to verify the certificate and other documents, which were found from the accused persons' possession.
According to sources, the accused had spread their network in Murshidabad, Birbhum, Hooghly, Kolkata and North 24-Parganas. They used to publish advertisements in newspapers about job openings in the 'Road Safety Organisation'. When job seekers used to approach the accused, they used to ask for money to conduct tests and other work. One of the job aspirants, Satyam Roy, said the accused had taken Rs 80,000 from him.
On Monday afternoon, one of the accused had asked about 30 job aspirants at a roadside eatery on Durgapur Expressway in Memari to sign a few documents. Upon suspicion, the job aspirants informed Memari police station.
After detaining the man, 7 others were picked up. Police seized more than Rs 1lakh and several forged certificates. The Burdwan court on Tuesday remanded three of the arrested in police custody for five days. The rest of the accused were sent to judicial custody.