BEST conductor duped of Rs 4.5 lakh with promise of CRPF job

Mumbai, Dec 6 (PTI) A 36-year-old conductor with the civic-run BEST bus service was allegedly cheated of Rs 4.5 lakh by three men who promised to get him a job with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), police said on Saturday.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Sarfaraz Salmani, Nilesh Sarode and Yogesh Kumar Shukla on Friday on a complaint filed by Mahesh Devkar, a resident of Navi Mumbai, said an official of Chunabhatti police station.

No arrest has been made in the case yet.

In 2022, a friend introduced him to Sarode who claimed to have contacts that could help him secure a government job, Devkar said in the complaint.

Soon, he was told that there vacancies of havildar's post in CRPF, he said.

Sarode introduced him to Salmani who claimed he handled government job processing and allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh as "fee".

A few days later, Salmani called Devkar to Delhi for a medical examination at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where he was introduced to Yogesh Kumar.

The trio then allegedly handed over a fake CRPF appointment letter to him and demanded another Rs 3 lakh. Under pressure, Devkar paid another Rs 3.5 lakh in instalments. He was also issued a bogus training letter.

But when he stopped receiving updates, he tried contacting the accused who did not respond. When he demanded a refund, he was given a cheque of Rs 50,000 which bounced. Devkar then found out that all the documents, including appointment and training letters, were fake, and lodged a police complaint.

An FIR was registered against Salmani, Nilesh Sarode and Yogesh Kumar Shukla for cheating and forgery, and further investigation was underway, the official added. PTI ZA KRK