Fake job firm in Valley dupes 800 youth

Bismah Malik

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 17

Promising unemployed and highly qualified youth dream jobs, a fake job consultancy run by a Kashmiri has duped 800 aspirants, including 150 students from J&K, of crores of rupees.

Muneer Ahmed Khan who was running the Aiida Global Corporate Services, a job consultancy firm with offices in Srinagar, Jammu, Delhi and Mumbai, had advertised widely that his firm would provide plum jobs to MBAs, BTechs and other professionals looking to settle in Dubai, Kuwait, Australia, Canada and London.

He got queries from job aspirants from various places, including Delhi, Chandigarh and Assam. Each aspirant was asked to pay an initial amount of Rs 75,000.

Muneer had provided his State Bank of India account number where all aspirants deposited the initial amount, thinking they would be provided work visas.

The aspirants were asked to submit their qualification certificates and passports at various branch offices of the job consultancy in November last year.

However, after submission of documents, Muneer and his employees dilly-dallied the process asked the aspirants to prepare their medical certificates.

“Even after completion of all formalities, Muneer said this will require some more time and was avoiding our calls. He earlier promised us that we will be placed in top companies of the UAE and had given us a list of those companies. But soon after, he switched off his phone and that is when we approached the police,” said Abid Mushtaq Bhat, an MBA from south Kashmir’s Anantnag district who paid Rs 75,000.

Students later lodged an FIR under Section 420 at the Trikuta Nagar police station in Jammu against Muneer.

Assistant Sub-Inspector, Trikuta Nagar police station, Nissar Ahmad, who is investigating the case, said he had seized 800 passports from the Trikuta Nagar office of the job consultancy. He said the aspirants had been asked to get affidavits for collecting the documents.

Meanwhile, the culprit is at large. The Srinagar and Jammu offices of the consultancy have been sealed by the police.