Boasting of influential connections, gang cheats jobs seekers of lakhs, 1 detained

Tirupur: As many as 10 job seekers have lodged a complaint with the city police against three people, including someone who posed as chief secretary of the Tamil Nadu government Girija Vaidyanathan, for duping them of lakhs of rupees by promising government jobs.
The complainants brought AL Arun of Othakadai in Madurai, an accused in the case, to the Tirupur north police station on Tuesday.

One of the complainants, P Kannan of Jaihindpuram in Madurai, said he gave Arun Rs 6lakh after he promised a job for his wife. “My wife, who had completed MEd, was running a small business in Madurai. We met Arun during a train journey to Chennai. He said he was working in the secretariat and promised to get a teacher’s post for my wife,” Kannan said. “To gain our trust, Arun told us that his friend Karthikeyan was one of the 13 personal assistants to Girija Vaidyanathan,” he told TOI.

T Bose of Madurai, a neighbour to Arun, said the 48-year-old man had received Rs 1.9lakh by offering a government job for his daughter.

They had deposited money in the bank accounts suggested by Arun, said Palkani, another complainant, who gave Arun Rs 1lakh for a job. “Arun even used the bank accounts of some of the victims for money transfer. The victims had given him their debit cards.”

Whenever they raised suspicion, Arun would call Karthikeyan over phone, who would give the phone to ‘the chief secretary’, Kannan said. “She would ensure us and ask us to pay the money. The cheaters were even ready to provide a discount of Rs 1lakh if we introduced a new job seeker.”

After coming to know that Arun was not a government employee, the complainants detained him. The cheaters could have swindled money to the tune of Rs 1crore, they said.

Tirupur north police have detained Arun.