Kasaragod, Jan 5: The police have arrested four people accused of duping over 400 job aspirants from south Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu of Rs 10 crore by promising jobs in Australia.
The accused are identified as Arun Das, 28, of Thathamangalam in Kozhikode; Chitra C. Nair, 26, of Mankara in Palakkad; Shastha Kumar, 46, of Coimbatore; and Vishnu, 24, of Mattannoor in Kannur.
According to the police, the accused ran a job recruitment agency with offices at Coimbatore, Kaloor in Kochi, and Karnataka’s Bengaluru, and cheated job aspirants by promising job visas to Australia.
They were arrested in a case registered by the North police one-and-a-half months ago after six such candidates lodged a petition against the accused for allegedly duping them of Rs. 13 lakh.
When the petitioners didn’t receive visa even months after paying the money, they visited the office at the Kaloor Junction only to see it locked.
They approached the corporate office at Coimbatore following which the company authorities reportedly gave them a written agreement to return the money within three months.
As that agreement wasn’t honoured, the petitioners returned to the Coimbatore office by which time the accused had secured a court direction prohibiting the petitioners from entering the office. It was then that they approached the North police. An enquiry conducted with the help of the cyber cell traced Vishnu to his house and the North police arrested him with the assistance of the Mattannoor police.
Later, the police picked up Arun Das and Chitra from their hideout in Coimbatore by spending a night in disguise in their neighbourhood. This was followed by the arrest of Shastha Kumar.
A team led by Sub Inspectors Vibin Das and Anas and Assistant Sub Inspector Sreekumar made the arrest. The accused were produced before the court and remanded.
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