Two incidents of cheating surfaced in Malda district on Friday, the victims being a government official and the husband of a panchayat head.
The government employee was fleeced of over Rs 1 lakh by a racket that promised a job for her son.
In the other case, the husband of the head of a panchayat was asked over phone by someone who claimed to be a “joint BDO” for money for a medical emergency.
In the first case, two persons have been arrested. Police are trying to track the caller in the second case.
In the first case, Ruma Pandey, a state government employee posted in the office of the BDO of Chanchal-I block in the district, alleged that Kameswar Singh, a resident of Bandel in Hooghly district, had promised her a Group C railway job for her son Jyotirmoy in exchange of money.
“He demanded Rs 12 lakh but eventually we came to an agreement at Rs 6 lakh. I paid him Rs 1.15 lakh in advance. He handed over an appointment letter to my son. He said two railway employees would contact my son soon and accompany him on his joining day. However, as he went on deferring the date of joining, we understood we had been duped,” Ruma said, adding she drew up a plan to implicate Singh.
She said she called up Singh to say she was ready with the remaining Rs 4.5 lakh. Soon, two persons who said they were Singh’s agents contacted the Pandey family and asked them to meet at the divisional railway manager’s office in Malda on Friday.
“We took along some of our friends and relatives with us. As we reached there, the duo met us and told my son that he will have to go to a hotel to sign some papers. We caught them and handed them over to the RPF,” Ruma added.
The duo detained by the RPF were identified as Azad Kumar and Mohammad Isha Khan from Patna. Both of them were handed over to Englishbazar police. Jyotirmoy filed a complaint against them, police officers said.
“We suspect they are members of a racket that swindles people on the pretext of offering them government jobs. Time and again, advertisements are put up by railways so that people do not fall into such traps but even then these cases crop up and people lose their money,” said a railway official.
In the other incident, Afzal Hossain, husband of Rishba Khatun who is the head of Harischandrapur gram panchayat in Malda district transferred Rs 20,000 to a person who called him up and asked for help for a medical emergency on Friday.
“The person over the phone claimed to be the joint BDO of Harishchandrapur-I block. This made Hossain believe in the caller and he promptly transferred the money. After some time, he called up the number for a follow-up and found the phone switched off. Suspecting the caller duped him, Hossain filed a complaint with the police,” a police officer said.
Preliminary police probe revealed similar calls from three-four numbers were made to pradhans or heads of five other panchayats in and around Harishchandrapur. They refused to part with any money.
“However, a civic volunteer was conned by a caller. The volunteer donated Rs 2,000. We are trying to track the phone numbers from which these calls were made,” the police officer added.
TMC worker death
A 55-year-old Trinamul worker in Purba Falimari village under Baxirhat police station of Cooch Behar district died on Friday afternoon during a clash of two groups of party supporters. The deceased has been identified as Kasem Ali Sheikh.
Police sources said initially a group ransacked the house of Abu Sayed Mondal, a member of Falimari panchayat, prompting a rival lobby to retaliate. Two Trinamul groups attacked each other with sticks and sharp weapons, leaving five persons injured. Sheikh, who sustained a serious head injury, was rushed to Alipurduar district hospital where he succumbed. The other four injured are under treatment, police said.
Sumit Kumar, the district police chief, said policemen have been deployed in the area to prevent a recurrence of the clash.
