LUCKNOW UP Police Special Task Force (STF) on Friday arrested a father-son duo from Lucknow’s Thakurganj area for allegedly running a job racket and duping over 100 aspirants on the pretext of providing jobs in different government departments and corporations, said officials.
The two accused were identified as Rajesh Gupta, 56, and his son Abhishek Gupta, 30, residents of Madhavpuri colony in Dubbaga locality of Lucknow. Rajesh Gupta works as a manager at the canteen of Lucknow General Post Office in Hazratganj, stated the press note issued by the STF.
A senior STF official said the duo had duped people by promising jobs in the Food Corporation of India, different banks, Metro services, power sector, education department, 108 ambulance service, community health centres as well as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). He said they had even issued fake admit cards, recruitment letters and identity cards to job aspirants to take money from them.
The official said the STF team recovered four forged appointment letters, 97 bio-datas of job aspirants and many other incriminating evidences from their possession. The two had been arrested in connection with an FIR of fraud, forgery, criminal breach of trust lodged by one Tribhuvan Singh at Refinery police station of Mathura on August 27, 2021.
He said they had duped the complainant of ₹25 lakh, assuring that his son and daughter would be recruited in the CRPF. The two accused even handed them two forged admit cards for the recruitment process at CRPF Ajmer centre in Rajasthan. They disappeared after taking money from the complainant and were at large since then.
The official said some more victims turned up to register their complaint against the father and son, after their arrest. Similarly, the accused had duped a Kanpur resident Shubham Chauhan of ₹2.5 lakh, a Siddharthnagar resident Shibbu Pandey of ₹4 lakh, Etawah resident Sushil Yadav of ₹2.7 lakh and one Rama Shankar Shukla of ₹50,000, he added.
He said the key accused Rajesh Gupta’s service record was also tainted. Gupta joined the GPO canteen in 1989, but was terminated in 2002 due to some reasons and was reinstated after 17 months. He was again suspended in 2005 and his suspension was revoked in 2006. But he was demoted to a primary scale. Subsequently, Gupta started operating this job racket with the help of his son around 5-6 years ago, said the official.