Hyderabad: A former aeronautical engineer and his team cheated around 100 gullible youth by falsely promising them jobs in the Railways and NTPC if they paid him, and cleared up Rs 70 lakh in the process. The Rachakonda SOT police busted the job racket and arrested the gang, which included two women, on Monday.

Police said that Shaik Mohammed Kasim posed as a member of the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) and conducted interviews for jobs in the Railways. Kasim, from Praka-sam district in AP, completed his aeronautical engineering course and worked for a private firm for a few months. He met Ghouse Basha and the two hatched the plan to cheat jobless youth by offering them jobs.



They brought in others as agents who scouted for candidates and told them they would get them jobs as ticket checkers in the Railways and as assistant engineers in NTPC for a consideration of `2 lakh to `10 lakh each, depending on the job. The police acted on a tip-off and conducted a decoy operation and nabbed the culprits.

“We have arrested seven persons and found that they are already accused in seven cases in different districts. Seven others are absconding. This gang has cheated more than 100 jobless youth. Many of them are yet to approach the police,” the officials said.

Kingpin parents are railway employees:

Parents of the kingpin of the jobs racket Shaik Mohammed Kasim, and another suspect, Mettupally Ashwini, are employed in the Railways, and were thus well infor-med about the recruitment process. They conducted interviews of the candidates in a wa-iting hall at Rail Nilayam, headquarters of the South Central Rail-way, which lent authenticity to the process. Kasim posed as a member of the RRB and interviewed the candidates and cleared their doubts about job confirmation.