Odisha EOW arrests IT expert from MP in country’s “biggest job fraud racket”

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], January 16 (ANI): Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police on Sunday arrested a person, accused of involvement in what is said to be the “biggest job fraud racket” in the country, from Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam, police said.

The arrested person, namely Arpit Panchal, a resident of Jaora in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam, was an IT expert and had developed nine websites, used to entice youths for government jobs and duped hefty sums. “In connection with a job fraud racket, busted by EOW in the last week of 2022, which was operated by Aligarh-based engineers, we have arrested another operative of the racket, who is also an engineer,” EOW Inspector General Jaya Narayan Pankaj said.

“Arpit Panchal was arrested from Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam, he was a website developer in the racket and had developed nine websites for the gang. The websites were designed in such a manner, which looked like government websites and advertised government jobs to the people on the fake website portal,” the senior cop said, adding that we have got a list of around 22,000 persons, who were victims of these websites.

According to the police, the victims or the job seeker youths were from Odisha and Gujarat.

The police are investigating victims from other states like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka.

Notably, Arpit Panchal was later produced before the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate Court, Bhubaneswar to seek transit remand of the accused.
The police’s investigation into this matter is underway.

Earlier, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police said it unearthed a huge job fraud scam being run from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. The scammers targeted the unemployed youth in at least five states – Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha.

According to Odisha Police, EOW arrested one of the primary accused namely Zafar Ahmed (25) a resident of Civil lines, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh in connection with the case.