Five held for duping job seekers of Rs 2 crore

Hoshiarpur, January 28

The police have arrested five crooks, who allegedly duped around 20 people of crores of rupees on the pretext of providing them with jobs in the Sports Department of the Punjab Police.

Hoshiarpur SP (Investigation) Sarabjit Singh Bahia told the press on Saturday, “On January 26, the police were informed about a Thar jeep parked in the Jalota village road area near Balaggan. The rear glass of the vehicle had been smashed. And the vehicle, which had no occupant, was riddled with bullet holes. As soon as the police were alerted about it, a team of cops was despatched to the site. A case was subsequently registered at the Dasuya police station under Sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act against unidentified persons.”

Bahia said that a team was set up by District Police Chief Surendra Lamba to probe the matter. Many people were grilled as part of the investigation, which relied heavily on the use of technical and scientific methods. It emerged during the probe that the owner of the jeep was Rajiv Kumar (alias Chhotu Pehalwan) a resident of Jangla (Dasuya). A wrestler by profession, Chhotu had set up an “akhara” in Jangla village, where local grapplers would come for practice. Chhotu had reportedly hired Jarnail Singh (alias Kaila), a resident of Khun Khun Sarkhi, as a wrestling trainer.

SP Bahia stated that Chhotu Pehalwan and Jarnail used to pose as cops by using fake ID cards and donning the khaki uniform. SP Bahia said that Chhotu Pehalwan had hoodwinked about 20 people for Rs 2 crore on the pretext of getting them jobs in the Sports Department of the Punjab Police.

Apart from Jarnail, Chhotu had roped in wrestler Ajay Banwala from Kaithal and Sanjeev Kumar from the Hajipur police station area to help find job aspirants that he could dupe. He had promised to hand over appointment letters to 20 youths at the PAP Complex on January 26. The job aspirants, who had been invited to Jalandhar’s PAP Campus to collect their appointment letters, were in for a rude shock when they found out that there was no such programme. Chhotu then tried to give the aspirants the impression that he had been abducted by pumping bullets into his own jeep.

After the police were alerted about the attack on Chhotu’s jeep, some victims of fraud submitted a written complaint to the Dasuya police station. A case was subsequently registered against Chhotu and Banwala in this regard. The special team probing the matter nabbed Chhotu, Banwala, Jarnail, Sanjeev and another accomplice named Harjinder Singh (alias Honey). Further, the cops seized a pistol of .32 bore, two fake Punjab Police ID cards, a Mahindra Thar jeep, an Alto car and three uniforms of the Punjab Police.