Job ‘offer’ to judge: Source of SMS remains a mystery

Coimbatore/Chennai: Mystery shrouds the 'job offer' made by four 'private employment firms' to a sitting judge of Madras high court.

When police in Chennai, Coimbatore and Tirupur tracked down all the companies that had sent the letters to Justice S Vaidyanathan, they said the call letter was sent on the basis of a 'request' received as SMS from a mobile number.

TOI accessed the mobile number and established contact with the person owning the SIM card. The man, identified as Ilaiyaraja, is based in Vasudevanallur in Tirunelveli district. When TOI called him, a terrified Ilaiyaraja said he was not aware how his mobile number had been used to send the purported SMS containing the judge's residential address at Villivakkam in Chennai. He said he had been receiving a large number of calls on the number since Sunday, and that police too visited him and verified all text messages stored in the device.

Justice S Vaidyanathan had received the letters from at least four 'private employment consultants' offering jobs ranging from clerk to supervisor. The letters asked the recipient to pay registration charges of upto Rs 750.

Suspecting a job racket and largescale fraud, a bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice Vaidyanathan heard the case and directed cyber crime branch police to probe and bring the culprits to the book.

In Chennai, the matter was forwarded to the crime branch and they started investigation. A senior police officer said the matter would soon be transferred to CB-CID.

Coimbatore (rural) police said Diamond Industrial recruitment firm in Karumathampatti sent an interview letter for the post of office staff/supervisor without knowing that the address belonged to Justice Vaidyanathan.

Tirupur city police confirmed that Reliance Industrial Recruitment, Renald Industrial Recruitment, Volvo Industrial recruitment firms were functioning in Tirupur limits. "We sent our police team to the three private companies on Monday. They also told us that they received SMS from a mobile number and based on the request only, they have sent the job offer letter to the address. The owners of the private employment consultants are out of station and they are asked to appear before Tirupur city police on Tuesday. They will be inquired thoroughly," said a senior police officer.