Police arrests man for cheating job aspirants Rs 25 lakh

Jajpur, Feb 10 (PTI) Police arrested a man in Odisha's Jajpur district for allegedly cheating six job aspirants of at least Rs 25 lakh by promising them state government jobs.

The accused, arrested on Friday, has been identified as Surya Badanayak, a resident of Malkangiri. The kingpin of the scam, identified as Ramachandra Darua, is on the run, police said, adding that an SUV, purchased with the ill-gotten money, was also seized.

Police said, Darua, a resident of Malkangiri, has been working as an assistant teacher in Palatpur Upgraded Middle English (UGME) School under Bari block in Jajpur district. He has been staying in a rented house in Palatpur village for the last ten years.

During his stay in the Palatpur area, Darua befriended the job seekers and promised them state government jobs, police said based on the preliminary investigation.

Last year, Darua called the six job seekers, four from Bari in Jajpur and two from neighbouring Kendrapara district and promised them Panchayat Executive Officer (PEO) jobs in the Odisha government. The job aspirants applied for the same accordingly.

He then asked the job aspirants to give him Rs 5 lakh each for the job. The six aspirants deposited Rs 25 lakh in the account of Darua in three phases from June to August last year.

The result of the PEO examination was published on December 8 last year. When the job aspirants could not find their names in the selected lists, they asked Darua to refund their money.

At first, he kept talking about returning the money, but later he disappeared.

The crime came to the fore when one Bibhuti Bhusan Jena from Palatpur filed a complaint with Bari police that he was cheated of Rs 4.5 lakh by Darua on Monday. Thereafter, five more complaints were lodged against Darua on similar charges at Bari police station.

Based on the complaints an investigation was launched and police arrested one of the accused.

"During investigation, we found the money which was deposited in the account of Darua was subsequently transferred to the account of Badanayak. We collected account details of Badanayak and arrested him...", said Prakash Chandra Sahoo, Inspector-in-Charge of Bari police station, adding the kingpin of the racket is on the run. PTI COR AAM AAM RG