According to the police, Vishwakarma ran a YouTube channel — Visa Expert Manpower — where he presented himself as a recruitment expert under various aliases, luring victims with the promise of lucrative overseas jobs. His YouTube channel has 156 videos and 6020 subscribers
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The Crime Branch has arrested a 33-year-old man from Nalasopara who allegedly masterminded a multi-state recruitment scam, duping job aspirants of nearly Rs 20 lakh by promising overseas employment. Police have identified the accused as Sanjay Lalchand Vishwakarma, a resident of Tulinj in Nalasopara.
According to the police, Vishwakarma ran a YouTube channel — Visa Expert Manpower — where he presented himself as a recruitment expert under various aliases, luring victims with the promise of lucrative overseas jobs. His YouTube channel has 156 videos and 6020 subscribers.
The titles of the videos mainly included jobs in Mauritius, Russia, Qatar, Canada, Georgia, Armenia, Dubai, Malaysia, Kuwait, etc., for freshers as warehouse helpers, packing helpers, supermarket helpers, etc. Officials said Vishwakarma and his associate Abdullah Hussain Alam Sheikh collected money from victims under the pretext of arranging for work visas while also instructing victims to send their passports and payments without meeting personally.
The matter first surfaced in January this year when one of the victims, a 46-year-old hotel worker from Bidar, Karnataka, approached the Charkop police. He alleged that he had been following Vishwakarma’s YouTube channel since 2020 and hence trusted his claims of arranging jobs abroad. The victim and his son-in-law paid R4.09 lakh in multiple instalments to secure driver jobs abroad.
“They came to Mumbai with packed bags to travel to Malaysia after the accused sent them their visas and tickets via WhatsApp. However, when they contacted Vishwakarma upon reaching Mumbai, he stopped taking their calls. They tried multiple times for a refund and even to get back their passports, but nothing. All the documents the accused had sent to them, including appointment letters, tickets, and visas, turned out to be bogus,” said a police officer. Further investigation revealed that there were four more victims who were cheated by Vishwakarma. Police suspect up to 20 people across different states may have been cheated.
After the FIR was registered, Vishwakarma and Sheikh shut down their operations and went into hiding. It was his YouTube channel and contact numbers posted on the channel which led the police to Nalasopara, from where Vishwakarma was held. Vishwakarma was already wanted at Navghar police station in Mira-Bhayandar, Sadar Nagaur police station in Rajasthan, and Fatehabad Sadar police station in Haryana. Police have also urged other victims to come forward.
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