Racket promising jobs in foreign countries busted in Noida, 11 arrested

To avoid getting caught, the suspects would change their names when they changed cities. It is suspected that the gang has so far duped at least 2,000 people, police said

The Noida police on Friday busted a fake jobs racket and arrested 11 people, including a woman, and recovered over 120 passports, fake stamps and visa documents from them, besides 755 forged appointment letters, said senior officers on Wednesday.

Police display the items seized from the gang on Wednesday, including over 120 passports, fake stamps and visa documents, besides 755 forged appointment letters. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

According to Vidyasagar Mishra, additional deputy commissioner of police, Noida, the gang was operating out of an office in Sector 132, Noida, by the name of ‘Eco Enterprises’.

“Following a tip-off about the illegal activities being run out of the office, the 11 suspects were arrested from Sector 132 on Tuesday evening by Sector 126 police station team. During interrogation, the suspects told us that they promoted job opportunities in foreign countries through social media and when a gullible unemployed youth approached them, they would charge him at least ₹40,000, on the pretext of processing a job application, procuring a visa, tickets and so on,” said Mishra.

The gang would also take the original passports of their victims and give them forged appointment letters, he added.

“All victims were given the same place and day to go abroad and they were told that the agent will meet them at the airport with their passports, visas, tickets and the currency of the country they were going to. When victims reached the airport, no one came to meet them. When jobseekers try to contact them over and at the office address given by them, they found that the phone was switched off and the office locked,” said the DCP, adding that the gang had been operating out of Noida since the past six months and prior to that, they had set up similar operations other cities in Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh and also Delhi.

“To avoid getting caught, the suspects would change their names when they changed cities. It is suspected that the gang has so far duped at least 2,000 people,” said the officer.

The arrested suspects were identified as Sameer Shah (37), resident of Meerut, Nand Kishore Prasad (47) from Gopalganj, Bihar, Mustaq Khan (43) from Malda, West Bangal, Mohd Ali Akhtar (40), from adhubani, Bihar, Mohd Ejaz Ahmed (47) son of Mohd Zafeer Azad, from Darbhanga, Bihar, Inderjit Das (55), from South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, Mohd Nazim (45), from Begusarai, Bihar, Mohd Ejaz (46) son of Mohd Omar and resident of Madhubani, Bihar, Mohd Ejaz Ahmed (25) son of Abdul Malik from Madhubani, Bihar, Kishore Prasad (37) from Bokaro, Jharkhand and Nazrana (43), a resident of Muzaffarpur, Bihar.

“The suspects have been charges under sections of cheating and forgery of the Indian Penal Code. They were sent to judicial custody on Friday,” said the officer.