Lucknow (The Hawk): The gullible youngsters were interviewed by a group of fraudsters posing as a team from the Food Corporation of India (FCI), and they even gave them appointment letters before vanishing from the scene.
In response to Santosh Singh, one of the victims, filing a complaint, a FIR has been made at the Mahanagar police station.
The group has previously deceived people by promising them employment in FCI.
The complainant claimed that in 2019, he met the gang's Neeraj Pandey, Vikas Sonkar, Anoop Srivastava, Vikas Singh, Alok Srivastava, Amrendra, Jitendra, Kuldeep, Neelesh, Vinod Kumar, and Raj Rastogi at a restaurant and was given the promise of a job in FCI (a clerical position) in exchanging for Rs 8 lakhs.
In February, "they held an interview at a multi-story fancy office in Delhi bearing the name and emblem of FCI," claimed Singh.
Along with other candidates, he also took a personality exam and a written test with multiple-choice questions.
In order to finalise the position, a gang member posing as the GM of FCI conducted interviews and demanded Rs. 5 lakh.
"In May, I received a call from the accused inviting me to join FCI unit in Sirsa Haryana, and I also received a letter with FCI insignia, labelled as trainee," he continued.
"When he arrived at Sirsa, he discovered that many other people had identical letters. I was instructed to travel to Barwala in Haryana because the facility was at capacity. The accused called me once more and asked me to travel to Delhi. After that, I was informed that I would receive my joining letter in four months."
A further Rs 15,000 was demanded from the victim for a training certificate.
Finally, he was informed that there were no more openings and that he would have to wait. After then, in 2021, the victim requested his money returned, but never did, according to the authorities.
Neeraj Pandey and Jitendra Kailash were captured by the police after a year of electronic surveillance. The group used to target students who lived close to coaching facilities.
Teams were organised to apprehend other gang members, according to SHO Mahanagar K.K. Tiwari.
(Inputs from Agencies)