Ganjam: A 42-year-old man was arrested by Chatrapur Police for allegedly duping an unemployed youth of Rs 50,000 by promising him a job in the State Bank of India (SBI), police said on Tuesday.
The accused has been identified as Panchanan Panda, a native of Nadiagaon village under Dhusuri police station in Bhadrak district. He was reportedly residing at Old Town in Bhubaneswar.
According to police, Panda allegedly published advertisements in the Odia daily ‘Prameya’, claiming to offer guaranteed jobs in SBI. The complainant, an unemployed youth, reportedly contacted him after seeing the advertisement and was allegedly persuaded to pay Rs 50,000 in instalments on different pretexts, including uniform and security deposits.
After receiving the money, the accused allegedly demanded further payment from the youth. When the victim was unable to make the additional payment, Panda allegedly stopped responding to his calls and became unreachable.
Following a complaint, Chatrapur Police launched an investigation into the alleged fraud and arrested Panda.
During the investigation, police reportedly seized four mobile phones, 26 blank appointment letters and 61 fake appointment letters. They also recovered 25 fake ID cards of job seekers, two ID cards allegedly belonging to the accused, and nine advertisement letter pads.
Police further seized six bank passbooks, two ATM cards, notebooks containing the biodata of job seekers and passport-size photographs of job aspirants.
The recovery of multiple fake appointment letters and job seekers’ documents has led police to suspect that the accused may have targeted several job aspirants using the fake recruitment advertisements.
Police are continuing their investigation to ascertain the extent of the racket and identify other persons who may have been involved.
