On Sep 06, J&K Police busted a fake job racket in Kupwara. Five persons were arrested for defrauding youths by promising to secure them employment with the Military Engineering Service (MES).
The scam was busted after police launched a probe following a complaint lodged on September 1 by one Mumtaz Ahmad Mir, alleging that his son, Mohd Sami Mir, was cheated of Rs 70,000 by Nazir Ahmad Khan. According to the complainant, Nazir took money for getting his son a job with MES, but the appointment letter he handed over turned out to be fake.
Supported by “credible intelligence from the Military Intelligence”, police registered an FIR and started investigations, which led to the seizure of several counterfeit appointment letters. Nazir was apprehended and during questioning, he spilled the beans on the entire operation of the scammers. He also divulged the identities of his four collaborators — Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Shakeel Ahmad Makroo, Feroz Ahmad Khashu and Shafkat Ahmad Shah.
Special police teams set up to crack the case swiftly apprehended all four individuals.
According to police, Makroo, a resident of Awantipora, was the mastermind, operating under the alias “Raju”. He posed as an influential Kashmiri Pandit and MES officer stationed at Rangreth, Srinagar.
Makroo enlisted the assistance of Zahoor, Feroz and Nazir as “field agents”, entrusted with the task of extracting money from unsuspecting job seekers.
Shafkat was the “technical expert” of the operation, responsible for fabricating and printing fake appointment letters and other documents. He operated from ‘Helpline Advertising Agency’ at Rangreth, Srinagar. The gang has so far duped eight unemployed youths from north Kashmir, cheating them of around Rs 25 lakh. Apart from fake appointment letters, gate passes, laptops, desktops, printers and mobile phones were seized from the accused. The investigation is still on and police said more arrests or recoveries could not be ruled out.
