3 held for duping job seekers

Nagpur, Mar 26 (UNI) The police here have arrested three persons, all brothers, and are looking for two others for allegedly extracting money from unemployed youth on the pretext of getting them jobs with the Government of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and issuing them fake appointment letters.

Those arrested have been identified as Sunil Gajanan Shelke (31), Anil Gajanan Shelke (24) and Ravi Gajanan Shelke (40), all residents of Seoni in neighbouring MP, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Dr B K Upadhyay said. The three were arrested in Seoni late on Monday night, he said.

The police also seized incriminating material like applications from job seekers, blank stamp papers, documents, fake rubber stamps and fake appointment letters from their house, Dr Upadhyay said. The police are now looking for their accomplices, identified as Ranjit Bhandwalkar, a resident of Paonar in Wardha district, and Anil Khushal Rathuse, a resident of Ramtek near here, he also said.

Dr Upadhyay said that the Shelke brothers, Bhandwalkar and Rathuse promised unemployed youth jobs in various departments of the Government of MP. After taking money from the job seekers, the fraudsters would give them fake appointment letters, he said. The applicants would then go to the department where they had been purportedly appointed, only to be told that the letter was bogus, the Additional Commissioner of Police said.

The cheats allegedly took Rs nine lakh from Shailesh Diwakar Ambulkar (24) of Paonar (district Wardha) on the pretext of getting him appointed as Deputy Collector in MP, Dr Upadhyay said.

An investigation was launched after a complaint from Ambulkar, he said.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the suspects had defrauded job seekers to the tune of Rs 50 lakh, he also said.

The police have registered an offence against the five suspects under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), he added.

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