The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday arrested five people, including a man who they claimed to be the personal secretary of former minister Swami Prasad Maurya, for allegedly duping unemployed youth on the pretext of giving them government jobs.
Maurya, who had quit the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and joined the Samajwadi Party just ahead of the recent assembly polls in the state, denied that the man had been working for him.
"There were reports that a gang is involved in duping unsuspected youth in the name of getting them government jobs. Five members, including Armaan Khan, personal secretary of former minister Swami Prasad Maurya, were arrested from near the National PG College at Hazratganj in Lucknow," a press release issued by the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday read.
During investigations, it came to light that the gang had earned crores of rupees from the youth, it said.
When contacted, Maurya denied the allegation that Khan used to be his personal secretary.
The prominent Other Backward Class leader said Khan was a common worker in the Bahujan Samaj Party and later the Bharatiya Janata Party when he was a member of those parties.
The STF told the media that while interrogating Asghar Ali, one of the accused in the case, he revealed that he had access to the Secretariat because of Armaan Khan.
Khan also used to get the prospective candidates meet Maurya on different pretexts, it said.
The STF also said Ali confessed with the officers that he used to contact Khan in order to get officials transferred and give them favourable postings.
Khan used to draw his salary from the labour department, it said.
According to Ali, the gang targeted youth in Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Sultanpur and Allahabad among other districts.
Seven mobile phones, 57 cheques of different banks and accounts, 22 fake appointment letters and other items were seized from them. Several vehicle passes to the Secretariat were also recovered.
The matter is being investigated, the release added.
Maurya, however, said Khan had never been his personal secretary and that he was just a computer operator in the labour department on a contract.
"I have nothing to do with Armaan Khan. The personal secretary of a minister has to be a government employee and not a private person. Armaan Khan is employed only on a contract basis with a board in the labour department," Maurya, who headed the labour department in the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government, pointed out.
He had contested and lost from Fazilnagar in the recent assembly election.
