New Delhi, Nov 8 (UNI) Nine members, including the kingpin, were arrested by Delhi Police on Saturday for allegedly running a fake job racket, duping job seekers by pretending to be recruiters for well-known airlines, an official said.
The mastermind was identified as Vikash Kumar (38). He was arrested along with his associates Baljeet Singh (31) and seven women, Charanjit (29), Shalini Bharadwaj (33), Aarti Kaur (19), Palveen Kaur (19), Nandini (24), Pooja Gupta (21) and Shweta (21).
Police said the gang was operating from a fake call centre in Tilak Nagar and reached out to job seekers via online advertisements.
“During the investigation, it was found that the victims were duped into paying for fake IndiGo Airlines jobs, with scammers demanding funds for supposed deposits, uniforms, and salary account formalities,” said Ankit Chauhan, Deputy Commissioner of Police.
The DCP said the accused mainly targeted unemployed young job seekers online, convincing them to pay amounts ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000 at different stages of the fake recruitment process.
The victims were misled into thinking they had secured jobs in well-known organisations.
The gang allegedly had created UPI IDs resembling IndiGo Airlines’ names, such as indigoavations@okaxis and avationair3521@oksbi, to gain the victims’ trust, Chauhan said.
The police stated that Kumar, a telecom worker, was apprehended after a technical investigation traced the fraudulent transactions to Subhash Nagar and Tilak Nagar.
Following his interrogation, the team got their hands on seven female telecallers from a fake call centre.
The police stated that Singh had illegally issued SIM cards using the biometric data of legitimate customers, adding that he played a key role by supplying pre-activated SIM cards, which allowed the racket to function unnoticed.
Amid the probe, the team confiscated 22 mobile phones, a desktop, 19 SIM cards, call registers and a Wi-Fi router.
The DCP further said that the inquiry led to the recovery of eight UPI IDs and a QR code linked to various bank accounts, and more than 40 complaints against the suspect were traced on the NCRP.
A case has been registered under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the arrested individuals.
Further investigation into this case is ongoing by the team to identify and trace the others involved in this case, DCP Chauhan stated.
