Bengaluru, March 4: Two men were arrested here for allegedly cheating over 30 people by falsely promising them jobs as officers in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), police said on Tuesday. The accused were identified as Aravind Naidu (36), a native of Andhra Pradesh, and Venugopal, a native of Bidar in Karnataka, who runs a photocopy-cum-stationery shop, they added.

Police said the duo duped job aspirants of amounts ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The matter came to light after a resident of J P Nagar approached the Central Crime Branch with a complaint on February 26. Railway Exam Paper Leak Scam Busted; CBI Arrests 9 Officials, Recovers INR 1.17 Crore Collected From Candidates for Leaking Question Papers.

According to the police, the complainant alleged that a man claiming to be a RAW officer promised him a job, saying he was heading the Bengaluru office of the department and had the authority to recruit officers and staff—provided they paid for the same. He lured the complainant by stating that he was offering jobs to over 30 aspirants in the department. The complainant also received a fake appointment letter, the police claimed.

According to the police, Venugopal came into contact with the main accused at a coffee shop in Bengaluru last year. Naidu introduced himself as an intelligence special officer at RAW and claimed he had been working for the department since 2021, recruiting people in exchange for money. Trusting him, Venugopal approached Naidu to get his friends recruited into RAW. Later, upon realising that Naidu was a fraudster, he too joined him, a senior police officer said. What Is Fake LinkedIn Job Scam? How Can You Protect Your Sensitive Information While Searching for Jobs Online?

Investigations have revealed that in some cases, the accused even paid salaries to the job aspirants for a few months before disappearing, he added. Based on a tip-off, Naidu was arrested from Hyderabad. During interrogation, he revealed Venugopal's involvement, leading to his arrest as well, police said. With their arrests, police recovered 86 fake letterheads of the agency, appointment letters, fake identity cards, seals and so on.

(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)