190 conned of 67L with fake foreign jobs, 4 held

Mumbai: Four persons have been arrested by Samta Nagar police for allegedly conning 190 people of Rs 67 lakh collectively with fake visas for jobs as handymen and drivers in Russia, South Korea and Turkey. The victims belong to different parts of the country, including Maharashtra, UP and Bihar.

Police said the accused took away the passports of the victims, some of whom had to pay Rs 2.5 lakh each and a few had to pawn their jewellery or sell their farmland to raise money. "We have seized 190 passports from the accused," said a police officer.


Prime accused Devraj Yadav was arrested from UP, where he had fled after the fraud was exposed. The other three arrested—Anam Ansari, her brother Rehaan alias Riyal Ansari and mother Parveen Ansari—hail from Nalasopara. Police are looking for four more suspects.

As per the FIR, the accused worked out of an office in Kandivli East. Some of the job aspirants approached them after noticing advertisements for job vacancies on Facebook, while others heard about them through word of mouth.

UP native Sachin Kumar Rawat said he was promised a job in Russia and was charged Rs 85,000 in cash. "I pawned my wife and children's jewellery and reached Mumbai on Dec 1. After I paid the accused, they took my passport and said it would be delivered to the hotel where I was put up after a visa was affixed. They had given me a flight ticket for Dec 3, but the ticket was later cancelled. The office wound up operations the same day and the accused vanished." Another job aspirant from Bihar, Sanjeet Kumar, said he was charged Rs 1.5 lakh and made payment through an agent in Oct.

On realising that they had been duped, the victims landed in Mumbai in hordes but had no place to stay. Some of them stayed on the premises of Samta Nagar police station.

With the help of BJP MP Piyush Goyal's office, the job aspirants said they were able to get their passports back from police and the investigation was expedited.

"Citizens, particularly young job aspirants, are advised to remain cautious of fraudulent job offers, including overseas employment promises circulated through social media or dubious channels, and to verify recruitment agencies through authorised portals before making any payments or submitting documents," Goyal said in a media release.

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