The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch on Wednesday busted a pan-India fake job racket and arrested Mohammad Sanaullah and Sakshi Jain who were running the racket.

Both the scammers hail from Hyderabad and are highly qualified.

“The EOW has alerted other states to keep track of the scammers who are running the fake job rackets. Those running the scams are highly qualified,” deputy inspector general of police (IG), EOW J.N. Pankanj told The Telegraph.

While Mohammad Sanaullah,40, did MA MEd in Mathematics from Osmania University, Sakshi Jain,24, wife of Mohammad Sanaullah did her MA in Economics from Osmania University. With the help of a Class VIII pass out Surat Dalai,21, from Bhograi of Balasore district, they spread their network in Odisha and has been running a job racket for the last few months. They have collected crores within a few months in the name of application fees.

SP (EOW) Dillip Kumar Tripathy told this newspaper, “This job racket is a part of the pan India fake job racket. The racket was operating in at least seven states Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Assam.”

Tripathy said: “These accused were camping in Odisha for the last few months and living in an AIRBNB rented accommodation. During the search, many incriminating documents and materials like one laptop, eight mobile phones, three pen drives, 12 ATM cards and cash of Rs 1 lakh have been seized.”

The SP said: “This case is based on the suo-motu enquiry conducted by EOW in connection with the advertisement published in a local daily on December 18, 2023, and December 22, 2023, by Aided Schools Welfare Society (Educational Organization Supported by Govt).”

During the investigation it came to light the advertisements had been published by one newly created fraud organization “Aided Schools Welfare Society” in which it was mentioned that applications were invited from eligible candidates for Non-teaching posts in Aided Schools in Odisha for different posts like Development Officer, Welfare Officer, School Supervisor, School Clerks, School Attenders and watchmen with specific eligibility and remuneration and vacancies.

As per the investigating officials, the last date of online application for the above posts was January 10, 2024. The salary offered was from Rs 28,000-to Rs 40,000 per month. “The organization also runs a website i.e. www.modelschools.ac. The website and advertisement were carefully designed to resemble the government website for misleading, duping the unemployed youth to believe that it is a bona fide government website and a job portal,” the SP said.

The scammers used government job criteria like reservation, age relaxation etc. on their website and advertisements. “Application fee was Rs 1,000 per post per candidate. They were planning to charge heavy Interview fees, security fees, and verification fees in the coming days before closing the website and later vanishing. The scammers have used various mule bank accounts to collect the fees so that they can fool or puzzle the police and other law enforcement agencies,” the SP said.

The scammers were also using many YouTube Channels to promote their scheme. “So far, transactions of more than Rs 1.7crore were noticed in these bank accounts. We are hopeful that the crores of money involved in it. Most of the money was withdrawn in cash through ATMs,” officials said.