An ex-armyman and his wife have been booked for allegedly duping one of his colleagues of ₹12.5 lakh on the pretext of securing jobs for his three relatives in the army.
The accused have been identified as Swarn Singh of Noorpur Bet village of Ladhowal and his wife Mandeep Kaur.
Ex-serviceman Manjit Singh of Jawanda Kalan village of Tarn Taran said Swarn Singh was also posted in his unit when he retired.
In 2017, when he had come to Ludhiana to see Swarn, the latter had claimed to have links with higher-rung army officers and he could secure jobs for Manjit’s relatives in the army.
Manjit believed his claim and talked to his three relatives about it and introduced them to Swarn. As per the deal, the accused demanded ₹5 lakh per person, Manjit said.
“I then handed over ₹8.5 lakh in cash to the accused and also transferred ₹4 lakh in his bank account on different dates. The rest of the money was to be given after my relatives got the jobs,” said Manjit.
“To win our trust, the accused handed over 8 cheques as guarantee. However, later, Swarn stopped picking up my phone calls. After futile attempts to meet him, I realised that we had been duped. I then lodged a complaint with the police,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“To win our trust, the accused handed over 8 cheques as guarantee. However, later, Swarn stopped picking up my phone calls. After futile attempts to meet him, I realised that we had been duped. I then lodged a complaint with the police,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}ASI Sandeep Singh of Ladhowal police station said a case under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC has been registered against the accused. A hunt is on for their arrest, he added.