Four booked for duping over 200 people for a job in London

The accused Kiritkumar Kanahiyalal Patel (43), his wife Kajal Pragada (35), his second wife Shilpaben Patel (40) and his accountant Gajanan Bhaskar Deshpande (42) from Ashti were booked by Chikhali police on Saturday

Pimpri-Chinchwad police booked four individuals for duping people to the tune of ₹16.14 lakh to get a job, permanent visa and residence in London. The incident was reported between August 2020 and June 2024 at Purnanagar in Chinchwad, said officials.

But the accused took ₹1 lakh as a token amount from each youth and promised to return the amount after confirming their visa and all formalities. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC)

The accused Kiritkumar Kanahiyalal Patel (43), his wife Kajal Pragada (35), his second wife Shilpaben Patel (40) and his accountant Gajanan Bhaskar Deshpande (42) from Ashti were booked by Chikhali police on Saturday.

As per the complaint filed by Shewtank Rajendra Shinde (28) from Alandi, before the Covid-19 pandemic, he came in contact with Kiritkumar Patel who informed Shinde that he required hundreds of youths to be sent to London to get a good salary job in London. The accused showed his documents from a London-based company to gain the confidence of Shinde.

But the accused took ₹1 lakh as a token amount from each youth and promised to return the amount after confirming their visa and all formalities. Police said Shinde and many others in total paid ₹16.14 lakh to the accused, who started avoiding the complainant and others who had paid the sum. When frustrated victims recently approached Patel to demand their money back, they found Patel and others had absconded and their mobile phones were not reachable.

SS Devkar, PSI at Chikhali police station said, “Prima facie it seems that, by luring London-based high salary jobs, the accused duped over 250 individuals by accepting ₹1 lakh from each one of the victims.’’

According to Devkar, police have registered an FIR as per the complaint filed by the victim along with 10-15 others.

Devkar said that the accused targeted over 250 unemployed people from different parts like the Satara, Kolhapur, Sangli and Pune areas, and the number of victims is likely to rise.

A case has been registered at Chikhali police station under sections 406,420 and 34 of the IPC and further investigation is going on.