Court nod awaited to use seized assets to pay job scam victims: CM

Porvorim: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said govt was waiting for a court order to dispose of property seized by police from the accused involved in the alleged job scam, to pay the victims. Sawant said that property worth Rs 4.4 crore was seized by the police and that once the cases are finalised, govt will think of releasing a chargesheet and internal report on job scams to the public.

Responding to a calling attention motion moved by leader of opposition Yuri Alemao and five other MLAs in the assembly, Sawant revealed that a total of 51 cases were registered between 2024 and 2025 involving fraudulent job recruitment schemes. Of these, 32 cases were already chargesheeted and forwarded to court, while the remaining 19 were under investigation.


Breaking down the figures, the chief minister stated that 40 cases were registered in 2024, with 30 forwarded to court and 10 under investigation. In 2025, 11 cases were registered so far, with two forwarded to court and nine pending investigation. Sawant assured the House that police investigation into the 19 pending cases will be completed soon.

The opposition raised concerns about growing anxiety among unemployed youth following repeated reports of large-scale job recruitment irregularities, where aspirants were allegedly induced to pay money in exchange for assurances of govt employment.

Sawant said that Rs 17 crore was collected by the main accused, Pooja Naik, who spent the money on herself, including the purchase of property, vehicles and foreign trips. He said that people should stop paying for govt jobs and clarified there was no connection between govt and the accused.

However, Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai questioned the scope of the investigation, noting that Naik claimed she paid Rs 17 crore to ministers. He pointed out that, according to the reply, cases were filed for a total amount of only Rs 26 lakh, suggesting she collected much more but only a fraction was being investigated.

Sardesai demanded clarity on how the crime branch was tracing the money trail Naik mentioned and questioned whether an audit was conducted on the funds she claimed to hand over. He also called for an enforcement directorate investigation.

“A chargesheet is public information, yet you are hiding it from this House. Are you waiting for another year until people forget all about this scam?” Sardesai questioned, and demanded the release of all chargesheets and internal reports.