Gang duped job seekers, conducted ‘training’ at railway station

According to officers from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), which is probing the case, the fraudsters received the money over a the last one year, and handed the job aspirants fake letters.

The Delhi Police is investigating the role some unidentified officials at the Railway hospital in Connaught Place and three others for duping 25 people from Tamil Nadu of ₹2.63 crore by promising jobs in the Indian Railway, officers aware of the matter said on Tuesday.

(HT Photo)

According to officers from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), which is probing the case, the fraudsters received the money over a the last one year, and handed the job aspirants fake letters. The officers said that the conmen also conducted fake training sessions for the job seekers. “One such training involved counting the number of trains leaving a platform at the New Delhi Railway station every hour. The candidates were told that counting the frequency of trains was a part of the job training,” an officer associated with the probe said.

The candidates paid the conmen sums ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹29 lakh to the conmen between December 2021 and October 2022, they said.

A retired army officer registered a complaint at the EOW on November 18, 2022. After a month-long preliminary probe, in which the police contacted different victims and collected evidence of the financial transactions, the police filed a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy on December 18, the officer said.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), M Subbuswamy, a 78-year-old former army officer -- the complainant in the case -- said he runs a non-profit job portal. He said he came in contact with a person who identified himself as Sivaraman and claimed that he can facilitate jobs at the Indian Railways. According to FIR, Subbuswamy said that Sivaraman lived in the servants quarters situated close to the bungalows for parliamentarians in New Delhi.

The retired serviceman said that he told Sivaraman about five job aspirants. Later, he said, Sivaraman took them to Delhi. One of them was given a fake job certificate in return for Rs33 lakh, and taken for “job training at the railway station”.

Within weeks, at least 27 others also paid money to Sivaraman in the hope of getting a government job, Subbuswamy said in his complaint.

“…..All candidates were called for medical examination at the Northern Railway Central Hospital, Connaught Place. After verifying their documents, they were also taken to Baroda House for issuing studying material, and joining orders, which were fake,” Subbuswamy said in his complaint.

A Northern Railway official did not comment on the matter.

Shalini Singh, special commissioner of police(EOW) said an FIR has been registered, and the investigation is ongoing.