Two arrested for job racket

HYDERABAD: Two MBA graduates belonging to a six-member gang involved in conning job-seekers were on Friday arrested by Crime Investigation Department (CID) officials for allegedly cheating unemployed youths by promising jobs with a multinational company.
Sleuths said that Srilakshmi and Anand, both hailing from Visakhapatnam, have cheated one D Srikanth, an engineering student who was in search of a job.
Police said that Srilakshmi contacted Srikanth over the telephone and informed that he had been selected for a job with IBM.
“Srikanth was provided the username and password to a specific email id created in his name by the accused following which an offer letter was sent to him. Subsequently, he was asked to pay Rs 1.6 lakh, which was deposited in the Anand’s account. The victim later realised that he had been cheated,” additional director general of police (CID), SV Ramana Murthy said.
Besides Srilakshmi and Anand, four others — R Nagasrinivas, C Kiran, Rishi Reddy and Praveen — were involved in the racket and police said that a manhunt was launched to nab them. According to the cops, the accused hired an office space in Pune and conducted interviews with several candidates.
“In their confession, the accused have said that, till now, they have cheated 37 youngsters in this manner and collected Rs 55 lakh from them. It appears that the other gang members are the main actors since the role of the arrested duo is limited,” additional superintendent of police (CID), C Ram Mohan said.
The accused have been arrested under the Information Technology Act sections 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.