Lucknow: The police have arrested two members of a gang that had created an office of Food Corporation of India (FCI) in a rented building at Mahanagar for running a fake recruitment drive for the FCI since last year.
The gang conducted interviews to win the job-seekers’ confidence and later issued fake appointment letters to select a few. However, before those who got appointment letters could realise that they were duped, the gang wrapped up the entire setup and fled.
The police managed to arrest two gang members, Neeraj Pandey and Jitendra Kailash, after a year-long electronic surveillance from near Nishatganj flyover on Sunday.
A non-bailable warrant (NBW) was issued against the duo.
The police said that it all started when one Manish Kumar Rai on June 14, 2021, lodged an FIR alleging that the arrested duo had taken Rs 1.75 crore on pretext of a job in FCI.
The police said that Manohar Rai, Aryan Anand, Munna Kumar, Ajay Yadav, Subedar Rajbhar, Afroz Khan along with 12 others had given Rs 1.75 crore to the accused.
The probe revealed the gang members initially used to target students near coaching institutes telling them about Group C and Group D jobs in the FCI.
Later, a member of the gang used to meet the candidates in a hotel and take a token money of Rs 2 lakh from each of the candidates.
“Those who paid Rs 2 lakh were asked to appear for an interview with Rs 2 lakh again. Those who paid the sum were then asked to go for an interview which was conducted in a two-storey building pasted with FCI insignia and lookalike government office. The gang members posted in the office were clad in uniform bearing the emblem and monogram of FCI,” the police added.
The jobs were those of depot managers and office in-charge of FCI.
One of the gang members had even appeared as the general manager of FCI and took interviews, while each member who appeared in the interview was asked to give Rs 5 lakh more for the confirmation of appointment, the police said.
The accused agreed to shell more and were handed appointment letters, the police said. When the candidates reached the FCI for joining, they got to know that they were duped.
SHO Mahanagar, K.K. Tiwari, said teams were formed to arrest other members of the gang and added that both the accused were in private jobs in New Delhi before they indulged in crime in 2021.
(IANS)
