E-Paper
Military Intelligence, Pune police bust fake army recruitment scam
The suspect is a resident of Coimbatore and is accused of faking himself as an official working with the records branch of the Military Intelligence and cheating four army job aspirants collectively of ₹12.80 lakh
Pune
The military intelligence unit attached with Southern Command and Wanowrie police in a joint operation nabbed an impostor identified as Ranjeet Kumar Rajendra Singh (33). The suspect is a resident of Coimbatore and is accused of faking himself as an official working with the records branch of the Military Intelligence and cheating four army job aspirants collectively of ₹12.80 lakh.
The accused was apprehended on Monday and has been booked under IPC sections 406, 420, 467, 471,470 and 171.
According to intelligence sources, Singh’s role is being investigated for defrauding another sixteen people, where he is accused of accepting payment from hopefuls in exchange for promising them recruitment in the armed forces.
The FIR further states that the accused promised a job in the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) Secunderabad, took money from them, and issued fake job offer letters. To win their confidence, Singh showed his bogus appointment letter, army uniform-wearing photograph, and other details of his credentials as an intelligence department official and cheated the victims while they had been practising physical training-related activities at the racecourse ground.
Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) Ajay Shitole who recorded the statement of the victims said the accused has cheated more aspirants who were connected with the four victims and had accepted money in cash and also online transfer.
“The recruitment scam came to light when a 21-year-old aspirant, who worked as a waiter and is a resident of Sangli was approached by the fraudster posing as an intelligence officer,” he said.
The victim was preparing to be recruited for the army and fell to Singh’s bait who promised him a secure job with the army and showed his identity card as proof of being an army official from Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC).
“The victim and his friends initially gave ₹50,000 each to the accused who told them to hand over the remaining sum after he gave them the hall tickets. However, after taking ₹12.80 lakh, Singh became unresponsive to their calls which led to suspicion. The victims then approached the military intelligence branch and filed the FIR,” stated the complainant in the FIR.
