Staff Reporter

Panaji

The Old Goa police, on Thursday, said that they have arrested Aniket Gaikwad (25) for allegedly cheating youngsters to the tune of around `13 lakh under the pretext of providing employment overseas.

The accused is originally from Ahmednagar, Maharastra and was nabbed by the police team from a location in Mumbai.

The police said that a complaint was lodged by a job seeker claiming that from November 2022 till February 2023, the accused, who claimed to be a recruitment agent, induced the complainant and others to pay money on the pretext of providing overseas jobs and cheated them to the tune of `13,00,000.

The police referring to the case said that the accused allegedly collected money from a number of local youth promising them employment in foreign countries such as U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand and also on foreign passenger and cargo ships.

Apart from Gaikwad, the police said that based on the complaint they had also booked one Savio Da Silva in the case.

However, investigation revealed that Da Silva had also paid money to Gaikwad seeking overseas employment and that he is a victim in the case, said police sources.

The police said that the accused took money and passports as well as other documents.

The complainant and others were also called to Mumbai for training, document verification etc, however the accused failed to provide employment said the police and added that the job offers were fake.

The police suspect that the accused could have reportedly cheated more such job seekers to lakhs
of rupees

Initially, the accused had promised to return the amount but later he stopped answering their phone calls and was on the run,
said the police.

Following the complaint, the police said that after 5 days of tracking, they managed to nab the accused from a location in Mumbai with the help of Deonar police station personnel.

The Old Goa police team was led by LPSI Laureen Sequeira under the supervision of PI
Satish Padwalkar.