A 75-year-old man and his son have been arrested for allegedly cheating government job aspirants, police said.
According to a complaint lodged with Sonarpur police station, Uttam Mukherjee and his son Arnab had allegedly taken Rs 10 lakh from a resident of Baikanthapur on the southern fringes of the city with false assurances of getting him a government job.
“Uttam Mukherjee is a homoeopath who has a lot of patients. His son apparently convinced him to lure some of his patients into the job trap,” said additional superintendent of police (Baruipur) Maqsood Hasan.
A team from Sonarpur police station raided the accused duo’s house and found several forged appointment letters and admit cards.
Some documents had fake seals of the state government or the national emblem, police said. Police said the son — Arnab — who was earlier attached with a private firm but is unemployed at present, was the alleged mastermind.
“We have found that Arnab had a certificate that said that he was an appointee of the CBI. However, on verification it was found that he was in no way attached with the CBI,” said an officer of Sonarpur police station.
The police said that they have found more people whom the duo had allegedly cheated in the past few months.
“They would charge anything between Rs 7,000 and Rs 1 lakh for getting people government jobs or to get them transferred. Arnab used to claim that he was with the CBI and had good contacts in various departments of the state government,” Hasan added.
A case under sections of cheating, fraud, forgery and criminal breach of trust has been started with Sonarpur police station based on the complaint police received.
The father and son were produced before the court on Wednesday. Arnab has been remanded to police custody while his father – being elderly and ill, has been remanded to judicial custody, police said.
A senior officer of the Baruipur police directorate said it was “unfortunate” that people still fall into such traps and get duped.
“We all need to understand that one cannot get a government job by paying bribes. People should be aware of this,” the officer said.