Mantralaya peon among three held for cheating 12 people in name of govt jobs

Crime branch officials said the accused even conducted bogus interviews at the state’s administrative headquarters and sent the aspirants to JJ hospital for a pre-employment check-up. A search is on for the fourth accused

Three people, including a peon at Mantralaya, have been arrested for allegedly duping at least 12 people of ₹73 lakh on the promise of securing them government jobs. The victims include three from a family.

Nitin Sathe, the alleged mastermind of the job racket. (HT Photo)

Crime branch officials said the accused even conducted bogus interviews at the state’s administrative headquarters and sent the aspirants to JJ hospital for a pre-employment check-up. A search is on for the fourth accused.

Malad (East) resident Sagar Jadhav alleged in his complaint that he had met one Mahendra Sakpal through a common friend in 2019. Sakpal claimed that he knew Nitin Sathe, a secretary in the general administration department, and Sachin Dholas, a senior clerk, and offered to help him get a job in Mantralaya.

Sakpal and his friend Mahendra Shirvale then collected the required documents from Jadhav, 26, his brother and sister and took ₹9 lakh in cash from them in Lower Parel. The three were given offer letters showing they were to be recruited as clerks-cum-typists and were called for a test at JJ Hospital. Later, Jadhav also gave another ₹11 lakh in three instalments to Sakpal at Chembur, the complainant said.

Jadhav and his siblings were then asked to come to Mantralaya for an interview. A guard took the three siblings to a first-floor room where Dholas met them and then took them to the sixth floor where there were already 10 to 12 people there. All of them had come for the interview, Jadhav said.

One Nitin Kundalik took the interview and verified their documents and promised them that they would soon get their joining letters and identity cards, police inspector Ravindra Salunkhe of crime branch’s unit 6 said.

However, after July 2021, Sakpal started avoiding the three, claiming their joining letters were delayed in view of the lockdown. “We waited for several months but did not get a positive response. Sakpal later told us that Kundalik had fled with our money and he too was helpless,” Jadhav said in his complaint.

Jadhav then filed a complaint at Chembur police station. On Monday, Dholas who works as a peon in Mantralaya, and Sathe and Shirvale, both from Navi Mumbai, were arrested. Sakpal, a resident of Marol in Andheri (East) is on the run. Sathe was the mastermind whereas Sakpal and Shirvale worked as agents and looked for job aspirants, police officials said.

The accused have been charged under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (whoever fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document which he knows or has reason to believe to be a forged), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), and 170 (personating a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code.