Inter-state job racket busted in Odisha, 5 arrested

The job fraud first came to the notice of police last month when 59-year-old Pranabandhu Jena of Angul district alleged that in 2018, a man known as Mishra took ₹ 450,000/- in cash from him with the promise to engage his son at TATA Industries.

Updated on: Mar 20, 2021, 08:56:31 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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Odisha police claim to have busted an inter-state racket that was cheating youth by promising non-existent jobs in Tata industries in return for money with the arrest of five persons from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, said police officials.

Several youth have been allegedly duped by the racket that promised jobs in engineering companies.

Angul superintendent of police Jagmohan Meena said the job racket spanned Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar and lured unemployed youth into paying up to ₹8 lakh in the hope of employment in respectable engineering companies. A 62-year-old man and his 29-year-old son were among those arrested while they were in the process of circulating fake recruitment forms to aspirants.

The job fraud first came to the notice of police last month when 59-year-old Pranabandhu Jena of Angul district alleged that in 2018, a man known as Mishra took ₹ 450,000/- in cash from him with the promise to engage his son at TATA Industries, Jamshedpur. However, he could not provide any job to his son. When Jena asked Mishra for a refund, he returned only about ₹80,000 in three instalments while threatening and abusing him. Operating since 2018, the accused are believed to have cheated scores of people.

In December last year, Odisha police arrested former BJD minister Pradeep Panigrahy for his alleged involvement in defrauding around 100 youths of Ganjam district in the name of providing jobs in Tata Motors. Panigrahy, who is still behind bars, allegedly took up to ₹10 lakh from each of the aspirants.

Two days ago, a conman posing as the director of Bloomberg TV channel was arrested in Bhubaneswar for allegedly cheating a youth of ₹1.3 lakh on the pretext of giving him a job. Odisha’s unemployment rate has increased by 10.7 percentage points, rising to 23.8% in Apr 2020, according to a survey conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More