Two held in Laxmi Nagar for duping over 100 jobless youths

NEW DELHI: A gang of cheats, which has allegedly duped over 100 unemployed youths on the pretext of granting them a loan under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation

NEW DELHI: A gang of cheats, which has allegedly duped over 100 unemployed youths on the pretext of granting them a loan under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), has been busted.

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Two gang members were arrested after a raid was conducted at their Laxmi Nagar office in east Delhi. They ran a fake call centre there, police said on Saturday.

Ravindra Yadav, joint CP (crime), said the alleged mastermind of the racket, Rakesh Bhardwaj, ran a daily newspaper, Saksham Bharat. It is published from Delhi, Dehradun, Varanasi, and Gorakhpur. In Delhi, Bhardwaj owned an office in Laxmi Nagar in the name of “Saksham Media”.

He ran the newspaper and booked advertisements in one portion of the office. In the other, he ran a fake call centre, said Yadav.

“Bhardwaj, who is evading arrest in the cheating cases, has hired two armed personal security officers (PSOs) for his safety. He often overawes the victims with the guards,” he said.

Bhisham Singh, DCP (crime), said the arrested persons had been identified as Rajesh Kumar, 31, and Kamal Choudhary, 30. They worked for Bhardwaj.

A few months ago, several youths in Pune and Maharashtra had received messages on their mobiles, which said they were selected for unemployment loan facility scheme launched by the Centre.