Bengaluru: A man posing as a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer allegedly cheated five youngsters of Rs 17 lakh after promising them jobs with the intelligence agency.
Sriramachandra, 49, a former employee of the statistics department and resident of Yelachenahalli in south Bengaluru, has knocked on the doors of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) seeking action against the crook.
The complainant told police the accused identified himself as Venugopal Kulkarni. Sriramachandra often visited a photocopy shop owned by one Aravind in JP Nagar. In March 2024, when he went to the shop, Aravind told him Venugopal had got a job for his wife in RAW. Aravind also said Venugopal needed a small work done in the revenue department and sought Sriramachandra’s help for the same.
After a few days, the two met Venugopal at a hotel in JP Nagar and discussed his work in the revenue department.
Venugopal said he was working as a special officer with RAW and also furnished what he claimed was the agency’s ID. He also said there were many vacancies in RAW and they were recruiting qualified aspirants aged above 18 to “work secretly” for the organisation.
Venugopal said each job would cost Rs 15 lakh for travel and other expenses. Sriramachandra wanted to get jobs for his sons and three of his relatives. After some bargaining, he paid Rs 10 lakh for getting jobs for the three relatives and Rs 7 lakh for his sons.
After receiving the money, Venugopal issued ‘interview letters’ to Sriramachandra’s sons in May 2024. The letters appeared to be genuine and had letterheads with the logo of RAW. Venugopal met Sriramachandra on the city civil court premises and told him he would finalise the jobs without conducting any interviews. Accordingly, he gave five ‘appointment letters’ in Aug and Sept 2024.
Venugopal then allegedly created a fake RAW portal and asked the aspirants to register and mark their attendance on it. He also said they would be getting a salary as they were already appointed. But after a month, they didn’t get any money.
When Sriramachandra tried to reach Venugopal on his five mobile numbers, all were switched off. Later, Aravind later told Sriramachandra Venugopal had cheated him as well by issuing a fake appointment order for his wife.
A senior police officer said a case has been registered under BNS Sections 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation), 336 (forgery), and 340 (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine). Efforts are on to nab the accused.