800 youths duped by consultancy firm in job scam

HR employees

A director of a consultancy firm and two of its HR employees duped over 800 youths to the tune of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, under the pretext of offering them job placements in Information Technology (IT) related companies in Magarpatta City and Mega Centre IT parks in Pune.

A director of a consultancy firm and two of its HR employees were arrested by the Hadapsar police for cheating job seekers of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, under the pretext of offering them placements in IT companies

The main accused has been identified as Kaliprasad Rath (30) from Bhubhaneswar in Odisha, who is the director
of the Knowledge Transition Consultancy company. The two other employees were identified as HR Manager Supriya Chaurasiya and HR Administrator Mamata Agarwal. Hadapsar police detained the trio last evening.

The victims of this job scam hail from various states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Police Inspector Rajendra Mohite from Hadapsar police station, said, "Rath claims to have a BTech degree. He has been remanded to seven days of police custody by a court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) on Wednesday. About 20 students have lodged an FIR against the trio."

The victims were asked to deposit Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh as a bond by the company. The job seekers were assured that they would get Rs 10,000 - Rs 20,000 as their monthly salary after handing over the money.

The duped youths received calls from one Riya Consultancy in Chinchwad, after which Rath, Chaurasiya and Agarwal would interview them in the company's office located in Magarpatta City.

They took R50,000 from their first 600 candidates and, later, Rs 1 lakh from the next 200 youngsters as a ‘refundable security deposit', and asked them to sign a one-year bond. The firm offered the aspirants an annual pay package of Rs 2 lakh.

The hopefuls did receive the monthly amount as promised, but for the past three months, their payments have been stopped. Rath has also not paid Rs 35 lakh due to the office space owner and the vendor of the computer accessories.

"We appeal to all youth to not fall prey to such deceptive job offers. Whoever has been duped by the company should approach the Hadapsar police station," said inspector Mohite.

Rs 2lakh
The annual pay package that the firm had promised the job seekers