The complainant claimed the gang took Rs 40 lakh from them in the name of giving them jobs in America. (File)The police in West Bengal’s Bidhannagar Sunday arrested three people and rescued 18 men from Haryana and Delhi, who were allegedly kept in confinement after being promised highly-paid jobs abroad, said officials.
According to the Bidhannagar Commisionerate, the rescued men were cheated of lakhs of rupees on the false promise of giving them jobs abroad. “The youths were originally brought from different parts of Punjab and Haryana in the name of getting jobs in America. For this, the arrested took huge money from their family members. Eighteen such job seekers were brought to Kolkata’s airport area,” said Biswajit Ghosh, deputy commissioner, detective department of Bidhannagar police.
The police said the 18 men were first kept in two hotels for two to three days. After that, they were taken to a house in the Eco Urban Village area in Kolkata and kept there for 10 days. All the 18 men were rescued from that house, added the police.
“Eight of them have already left for their home by plane. When they were rescued they looked mentally disturbed. The remaining 10 youths are still being interrogated,” said an official.
The police action came after a person from Haryana complained to the Bidhannagar Commissionerate that his son has been kept confined in the airport area by a group of people who had promised him a job in the US.
The complainant claimed the gang took Rs 40 lakh from them in the name of giving them jobs in America. Later, they demanded another Rs 35 lakh from the victims’ family members over the phone. After that, the father contacted the Bidhannagar Commissionerate.
After receiving the complaint, the Bidhannagar Commissionerate started an investigation to find the tower location of the mobile phone of the young man from Haryana, a second-year college student.
An investigation is ongoing, said the police.