New Delhi, Oct 14 (PTI) Three men have been arrested for allegedly creating a fake website of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and duping unemployed youth on the pretext of providing them government jobs, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, Amit Kumar (27), Ramdayal Lal (27) and Gurdeep (28), created a website similar to CPWD's official website and to make it look authentic, they copied contents from the original website. They also conducted fake exam and offered appointment to victims, they said.

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The police said that Kumar, a B.Tech dropout, is the kingpin of the gang. After quitting his job as a toll clerk in 2018, he started duping unemployed youth on the pretext of providing them government jobs.

So far, over 50 unemployed youth have been cheated of around Rs 10-12 lakh by the accused. With the cheated amount, Kumar purchased a plot in Lucknow and a car, police said.

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A probe was initiated into the matter after complaints were received at South Avenue police station by a senior CPWD official, Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi. During the investigation, the mobile number from which the fake website was created was ascertained by technical and cyber analysis, following which Ramdayal Lal was identified, a police officer said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Eish Singhal said, "On Monday, our team received information that the creators of the fake website involved in duping youngsters on the pretext of providing jobs would be coming to Mahipalpur. A trap was laid and all the three accused were arrested." One laptop, five smartphones, including one I-phone, and fake identity and visiting cards of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) were recovered from them, he said. During probe, it was revealed that Kumar introduced himself as an engineer in CPWD (NHAI). To prove his antecedents, he even got a fake Identity card of NHAI to impress people. Unemployed youth in his acquaintance group asked him to help them in getting a government job as well, the officer said. In 2018, Kumar quit his toll clerk job and got a fake website www.cpwd.co.in created from a web designer in Lucknow and started duping unemployed youths. But the fake website did not last long and was shut down due to some reason, he said. Thereafter, he came in contact with Lal and Gurdeep through another website. The duo had been running web designing and website creation work in Rajasthan. Kumar introduced himself as project manager in CPWD in Kerala and asked them to create a CPWD website, he added. The duo suspected Kumar and confronted him on this but he managed to lure them by assuring big returns and also to include them in his plans. Then they created a fake website and started duping people, the DCP said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)