Berhampur Police Busts Major Job Racket; 9 Arrested 

Berhampur: The Berhampur Police has busted a major job racket operating in the city, arresting nine members of the gang associated with the fraudulent activities.

Alleged mastermind Jagadish Behera and his associates, who are accused of duping numerous job seekers across various districts with fake government appointment letters, have been arrested by the Berhampur Police.

On December 3, one Santosh Kumar Sahu filed a complained at BNpur Police station alleging that he has been cheated of Rs.27,50,000 by one Hrudananda Muni and his associates namely Jagadish Behera, Sunil Ku. Mishra and Santosh Nayak and others for providing government Jobs in various departments to the candidates who know the complainant.

On January 2023, Sahu first met Hrudayanda Muni of Kalasandhapur, Aska with some persons who promised that they will facilitate Govt. job in different departments for candidates. He also showed him some contacts and appointments letters which appeared to be genuine.

The complainant believed his words and showed his interest for job and asked him the procedure. So Hrudayanda Muni told him that at first, he has to prepare the Biodata of the candidates and send to him for verification and after verification if the candidate is shortlisted then then he has to give money according to the post he applied for which is around 3 lakhs per person. Being convinced the complainant prepared the Biodata of his and his friend’s wives and other relatives and sent the Biodata to Muni who sent documents to Jagadish Behera for “verification”.

Later Hrudayananda Muni took them to Bhubaneswar Nirman Souda building where they met Jagadish Behera who introduced himself as a senior Government officer and asked them to submit their certificates and identity proof and told him that official mail will be sent to them through their email within 3 to 4 days. After lapse of 4 days accused persons gave “appointment letters” which looked like genuine official letters through post. Meanwhile some relatives and friends of complainant approached him to arrange job for them according to their qualification. According they also contacted Mr. Muni and followed the same procedure. All together Rs. 27 Lakhs 50 thousand was given to the the accused persons in different date through online and cash. Accused persons made the victims believe that they have got their job and even asked the victims to bring the candidates to Bhubaneswar for physical and Biometric verification. When the candidates went to Bhubaneswar for their verification one Sishir Kumar Mishra met them outside Secratariat and gave them their fake joining letters and took them one by one to Natala building 1st and 2nd floor make them stand in front of some camera and told them that your physical verification is done and you may join in your duty within a week. He also took some candidates to Secretariat building, some to High court of Odisha Cuttack and other office building too.

When the due date come for joining as per the “appointment letter” they avoided and switched off their mobiles phones and postponed the joining dates by saying different reason. When they finally realised that they are being cheated they asked the accused persons to refund their money, but instead of returning their money accused persons Jagadish Behera and his associates started to threaten the complainant to face dire consequence if he approached them to refund their money again. The accused Jagdish Behera employed bouncers to keep the victims threatened. Finally, without finding another way victim reported the matter at PS.

During investigation the accused persons were apprehended and on interrogation and verification it came to light that all the accused persons involved were unemployed and have no sustainable income, so they formed a gang to cheat youth in the name of government jobs. Jagadish Behera is the mastermind of the gang. To execute his plan Jagadish Behera engaged Hrudayananda Muni, Sanjeeb Rautray of Kolkata, Sisir Kumar Mishra of Jagatsinguur, Raju Maharana of Jajapur, Santosh Nayak of Nayagada, Surjyakanta Behera of Ganjam to collect money and did other fake official paper work, fake Govt. seal, Govt. Logo, Signature etc. They also took the candidates and made them meet their other members of gang who acted as government employees in different Government offices by introducing themselves as government officials and provide the fake appointment letters to the candidates.

To terrorise the victims and to grab their money accused Jagadish Behera engaged four body guards/bouncers with him by giving them monthly salary, so that when the victims asked for his money they threatened them if they will ask further any money or report before police his body guards will taken care of them. Hence, out of fear nobody dared to report against him. On verification of the financial transaction history of only one of the accounts of accused Jagadish Behera so far revealed Rs.1,96,52,500 has been transferred from different accounts to his account from 11.02.23 to till date. Many accounts and details of cash transactions are under investigation. Accused persons were maintaining luxurious life style, informed Berhampur SP Dr. Saravana Vivek M.

The police has launched a search operation to capture remaining gang members and are delving into the financial dealings of the suspects, he added.