Hyderabad: Hyderabad police officials on Thursday busted an inter-state job fraud racket by cheating public in the name of providing jobs in different central and state government departments like GHMC, education, secretariat, High Court, railways and revenue. Central and West Zone task force nabbed eight persons from the gang for cheating around 150 job applicants and cash worth Rs 24.1 lakh and fake appointment letters were seized.
Police identified the accused as Vardhanapu Gangadhar, 35, Pitla Dathadri, 28, M. Shiva Reddy, 27, K. Rajesh, 31, Aerukonda Swamy, 32, Kranthi Kumar, and others.
The gang has nine members who identified potential applicants and brought them to other gang members who posed as influential government officials. The applicants were promised key job positions like junior assistant, commercial clerk and ticket collector for a bribe ranging between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh.
Candidates were asked to pay an advance of Rs 1 lakh at offices set up by the gang which looked like government workplaces. On payment of an advance, candidates were sent an e-mail and SMS from fake government mail IDs and phone numbers created by Vardhanapu Gangadhar. The applicants who paid the bribe were also sent out to different locations like Orissa, Calcutta, Vijayawada and Delhi for training. Some candidates were even given uniforms and a one month salary to trap other candidates by way of good publicity.
The gang avoided phone calls and discontinued using the SIM on receiving the full amount. Police cases have been registered against the gang members at different police stations namely Chilkalguda, Saifabad, Panjagutta, Gachibowli and Vizag among others.
All eight gang members have been sent to SR Nagar police station for further investigation.
