Couple swindles Rs 4 crore on promise of govt jobs, held in Chennai

According to the police, the couple had collected money from more than 60 job aspirants since 2017. However, despite promising to secure them jobs, they not only failed to do so but also return them the money.

The arrested couple were identified as S Ravichandra Prabhu (51) of Valasaravakkam and his wife Sasipriya (43), who have been running a manpower agency named Mass Manpower Consultancy in Alwarthirunagar.

Their modus operandi came to light after one Kantha Venkitesan paid Rs 20 lakh to Sasipriya hoping to get a job in Immigration Department for her son in 2019. Officials said Sasipriya, her husband and their daughter had collected to money from Kantha promising the job.

Inquiry by the police revealed that the couple had been collecting money from job aspirants from 2017 promising to secure jobs of contractor and engineer in Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC); office assistant, junior engineer and assistant engineer in TNEB; and jobs in HR&CE and other government departments.

During the probe, the police found that the couple had collected at least Rs 16 lakh each from two persons hailing from Tiruvarur on the promise of jobs in NLC, while 7 others from Sholinganallur had paid a total of around Rs 40 lakh hoping to get jobs in Law Department.

Following this, the police team arrested the couple and seized a laptop, 10 mobile phones and a tablet computer from them.

City police cautioned job aspirants that government or private employers do not recruit people after collecting money, and advised them against paying cash to strangers who promise to secure lucrative jobs for them.