2 held, search on for panchayat prez in Rs 5 cr govt job fraud

The arrested were identified as Satish (31) of Thachampattu village in Tiruvannamalai district and Thangaraj (70) a retired police bugler of Vellore, while the main accused Kumaresan (35), the current president of Peruvalayam village panchayat in Ranipet district is absconding. The trio duped nearly 100 persons of more than Rs 5 crore collecting amounts ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh on the promise of providing them jobs in the court, police and forest departments from 2019.

While Satish collected the cash from the public and handed it over to Kumaresan, Thangaraj based on fictitious orders provided to the participants provided them “training.” When the date of the first appointment order was crossed without any participant receiving call orders from the government, the trio said fresh orders would soon be issued for their entry into government service.

When nothing came about, the people understood that they were cheated and hence more than 100 filed complaints with the Vellore DCB. After checking details, police said they had registered 25 cases based on all available details. Both Satish and Thangaraj were arrested on Deepavali eve.