A former employee of a recently shut down newspaper was tricked into paying Rs 1.4 crore on the promise of a job in Austria, which paid a monthly salary of $5,000 and a $75,000 gift from the employer.

The victim sold his house, liquidated his fixed deposits, borrowed money from friends and relatives to pay the swindlers the money in 35 transactions over the last eight months. Two Nigerian nationals, a man identified as Diongue Mohammed alias Nwosu Donals Prosper, 34 and a woman, Musa Halimat, 29 were arrested in the matter by the Malad police on Thursday. According to sources in the Malad police, Manoj Kashikar, 38, used to work for DNA India newspaper in the city. He had applied for the job through a job recruitment portal online when he was laid off by the paper earlier this year.