Wipro job racket busted, 4 held

Police in Bengaluru busted a job racket with the arrest of four persons, including one woman, who had allegedly duped at least 37 job seekers by accepting a payment of Rs 180,000 each on the promise of securing employment in Wipro.

The accused were identified as Rajiv Ranjan, 30, native of Bihar, Mohammed Azar, 25, native of Andhra Pradesh, Sathya Priya, 25, native of Tamil Nadu, and M N Naryanana, 29, from Kerala, according to Bengaluru Police Commissioner B G Jyothiprakash Mirji.

Explaining their modus operandi, he said Priya would lure job seekers and collect all documents and original certificates from them with a promise to find employment in Wipro in Bengaluru.

The accused would then accompany them to the Wipro campus, where she would arrange for a meeting with her accomplices, posing as Wipro personnel. The accused would then arrange for an 'interview' with a person posing as the managing director of the company.

Mirji said the accused managed to gain entry into the Wipro campus by misusing the vendor entry cards issued by the company.

The accused would then hand over to the victims letters of appointment for software trainee engineers with a annual income of Rs 2,94,000.

The fake letter also asked the victims to report to Wipro in September, he said.

However, the racket came to light when one of the victims suspected something amiss and alerted the police.

He said the gang, all first-time offenders who had been running this racket for about 40 days, had so far cheated 37 persons.

The police recovered goods worth Rs 58.43 lakh (Rs 5.84 million) from the accused, including cash of about Rs 44 lakh (Rs 4.4 million), ATM cards, pan cards, gold ornaments, vehicles and duplicate letter heads.

Three of the gang members were pursuing their management courses and were well qualified, police said.

The accused were tech-savvy and also managed to replicate the Wipro logo on their letter heads.

So far, the police had not traced any links to any Wipro employee in the racket, but are investigating this angle as well, he said.