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Government employees, software engineer among 7 held for duping people by promising jobs in ONGC

New Delhi | By
Sep 19, 2018 09:25 AM IST

Police said the ONGC’s banners were put up in the interview rooms and the gang members impersonated as senior officials of the department as “interviewers”, police said.

The Delhi Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a pan-India job racket that duped aspirants of money after promising them jobs in the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). Seven men— two of them employees of the rural development ministry, a software engineer and a web designer— were arrested.

Police said the men conducted interviews of job aspirants at the vacant offices of senior officials at Krishi Bhawan with the help of the two junior employees of rural development ministry. They put ONGC’s banners in the interview rooms and the gang members impersonated as senior officials of the department as “interviewers”, police said.

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Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Bhisham Singh said the fraudsters sent interview confirmation emails to candidates through accounts that were similar to the official ones used by ONGC.They also used mobile apps to make the job applicants believe that they had indeed received a call from the landline number of the ONGC.

“The spoofing of the email account and landline numbers were done through a software that the gang members had developed. Their objective was to win the confidence of candidates by making everything look genuine,” Singh said.

An ONGC spokesperson said, “The ONGC filed two FIRs and extended all cooperation to the investigation. Whenever such fraudulent activities are brought to the notice, ONGC takes necessary actions.”

The arrested persons were identified as Kunal Kishore, 32, the mastermind; Jagdish Raj,58, permanent multi-tasking staff (MTS) of the rural development ministry; his colleague Sandeep Kumar,31, a contractual MTS; Wasim,28; Ankit Gupta,32; Vishal Goel,27; and Suman Saurabh,32.

Police seized 27 mobile phones, 45 SIM cards, fake voter IDs and other items from them.

DCP Singh said the arrests came following an investigation into a case filed by the ONGC at the Vasant Kunj North police station in May this year. It was later transferred to the crime branch. Two persons, both BTech graduates from Hyderabad, had filed complaints with the ONGC and had alleged that they were duped of 22 lakh after being promised jobs as assistant engineers in the ONGC.

During the investigation, Singh said it was found that the complainants had received interview confirmation emails from “parody email ID” of the ONGC and they were interviewed at Krishi Bhawan. They were also given fake appointment letters and were tricked into paying the entire money in cash.

“Investigators collected details of the services such as cab and hotel bookings for candidates that the suspects had done using their phones. They got the internet protocol (IP) address of a computer that one of the suspects had used for online shopping. The IP address led them to an office in Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar from where an online educational test and scholarship company was being run,” the DCP said.

The company’s director, Kunal Kishore, was interrogated and he confessed to his involvement in the racket. His grilling led to the arrest of his six accomplices. Kishore revealed that his associate, Ravi Chandra, who runs a consultancy firm in Hyderabad, used to lure job aspirants. Chandra is yet to be arrested.

Police said Kishore promised jobs in ONGC by claiming that his brother-in-law is a senior official in the ONGC. Wasim, a web designer, allegedly prepared the fake interview letters and the same were sent to candidates through the ONGC’s parody email ID created by Goel, a software engineer.

“The arrested rural development ministry employees facilitated the entry of candidates into Krishi Bhawan and arranged vacant offices for their fake interviews. Gupta and Saurabh, marketing head of a private company, interviewed the candidates by posing as ONGC officials,” Singh said.

Police said the arrested men have admitted to have conned over two dozen job aspirants from various states over the last three or four years.

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