Tamil Nadu: 65 men promised jobs in Korea taken for ride
As the days passed, many of them stranded people started to look for ways to return to India.
Chennai: In yet another case of job racket operating from East Asian countries, as many as 65 people from Tamil Nadu who were offered a job in an auto major in South Korea, were taken for a ride after they reached Indonesia. Many of the victims had applied for a job through an online job site while others had come to know about the ‘vacancies’ through sub agents.
“All of us paid Rs 4.5 lakh to our agents and after taking us to Bangkok, Thailand and then to Indonesia the agents abandoned us. We had to sneak out of the hotel, leaving our bags and passport behind and reach the Indian embassy there to return to India after struggling there without food in an unknown land for nearly 4 months,” noted one of the victims, who has pinned hope on Chennai police to get back his money, six months after he had gone through the ordeal.
“We were totally 65 people when taken from Chennai by Virugambakkam based HR consultancy saying that we would be sent to Korea within 15 days. We all paid over Rs 4.5 lakh each to the firm and we were offered Rs 1 lakh salary. We got our one-month visa after arriving. After few weeks of stay in Thailand, from where the agents arranged fake offer letters and work permit, etc., we were again taken to Indonesia and were lodged in a hotel after which the local agent, a Tamil, disappeared,” noted K. Ponmudi, 26, a native of Chinna Salem. Like Ponmudi, most of the job aspirants had finished diploma in mechanical engineering while the other were engineering graduates.
As the days passed, many of them stranded people started to look for ways to return to India. “In the end, 22 people were left and the hotel management had seized our passports as we had no money to pay. We then contacted the Indian diplomatic mission in Jakarta. The officials advised us to reach their office, leaving our bags in the hotel so that hotel employees will not know that we were ‘checking out’. The embassy officials arranged one-day passport and facilitated our journey back to Chennai,” noted N. Babu, 43, another victim, a resident of Salem.
The victims feel that that the racketeers comprising at least three from Tamil Nadu including the man who was running the manpower agency in Virugambakkam could have swindled over Rs 2.5 crore and they could have easily made Rs 1.5 crore after all the expenses.
“Chennai police had promised to book the culprits and try to help us to get back our money,” one of the victims added.