ITANAGAR, 13 Dec: A special investigation team (SIT) of the state police arrested a man and his wife, who allegedly cheated more than 100 job aspirants to the tune of more than Rs 10 lakhs by promising jobs at the Hollongi airport.
The duo has been identified as Subhasish Mistri (26) and Mampi Bannerjee, of 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, SIT SP Rohit Rajbir Singh said.
The SIT had registered a case under Sections 420/468/471 IPC, r/w Section 66D of the IT Act after receiving a written complaint from one victim, and launched an investigation.
In his complaint letter, the victim stated that, sometime in September this year, he had come across an airport job advertisement on Facebook and applied for the same.
He contacted an unknown woman, whose number was given in the advertisement, over the phone, and followed the procedure as directed.
The complainant had paid Rs 20,775 into their account on various dates, and in return received an appointment letter and various documents from them, which were later found to be fake.
“Upon careful perusal of the social media linkages of the fraudulent imposters, it was realised that this was a well-thought-out and executed scam, with interstate linkages. Thus, a team led by Inspector Padi Nikang was formed to tackle the same, under the guidance of SIT OC N Lali, and SIT DSP M Basar Kamdak,” the SP said.
The team, through intensive surveillance and social media investigation, was able to zero down on Mistri as the mastermind behind the offence, and succeeded in arresting him on 7 December from West Bengal. His wife has also been arrested for the offence.
Interrogation revealed that the accused formerly used to work in a BPO company in Kolkata, dealing with mobile towers’ installation.
“He opened a fake Facebook account in the name of ‘Sunanda Saikia’. He then made one airport job advertisement and, after some editing, posted it on Facebook during October-November 2021, mentioning his mobile number for job query purposes. He also downloaded two apps – letter template samples and OKEN scanner – for preparing appointment letters and gate passes,” the police said.
“Mistry also downloaded the seal of the Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly and signatures from the internet,” the police added.
After some days, many applicants started sending their documents, such as biodata, PAN cards and qualification certificates, to his WhatsApp number. After that, he asked them to deposit money for uniform fees and logistics.
Three mobile phones and four SIM cards used for the commission of the offence, along with fraudulent documents were recovered from the duo.
