Recruitment scam: Police find accused’s Parel residence locked

A police team investigating a recruitment scam, in which at least 93 job aspirants were cheated of Rs40 lakh in all, went to the Parel residence of the racket’s alleged kingpin, only to find it locked.

A police team investigating a recruitment scam, in which at least 93 job aspirants were cheated of Rs40 lakh in all, went to the Parel residence of the racket’s alleged kingpin, only to find it locked.

The Parksite police, Vikhroli, had found some documents which said that Rajkumari, alias Rhea Gupta, lived in Parel.

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The job aspirants, from across the country, had responded to newspaper advertisements by a firm called Global Research, which claimed to be a leading export, import and manpower consultancy firm. The ads promised those employed in small-time jobs — as drivers, mechanics and painters — lucrative jobs in South Africa, Singapore and Canada. The applicants had been in touch with Gupta about the jobs.

The police had come across two computers at the Vikhroli office of Global Research, where they found these documents. “We suspect the documents were forged. The entire scam was planned in detail and no evidence was left behind,” said Sanjay Patil, senior inspector, Parksite police. The police also found photographs of the accused.

Some victims, who wanted to verify the firm’s claims, viewed the website of the Singapore-based company where they had been promised jobs. “I checked the website of the Singapore company that we were told would employ us. We found the Mumbai address of Global Research on the website, which quelled our doubts,” said Ram Pravesh Singh, 28, one of the applicants.

“We will take the cyber police’s help to find out how the website had information of the firm. We will also check with the labour ministry if Global Research is a registered firm,” said Patil.