Varanasi: The Azamgarh Cyber Cell and Sidhari police have arrested a man for allegedly duping unemployed youths by promising them jobs in the Maldives and providing forged work permits.Police recovered fake Maldives work permits, a mobile phone and other incriminating material from the accused, and are probing his wider fraud network.Addressing the media on Monday, Azamgarh ASP (Rural) Chirag Jain said a joint team of the Cyber Cell and Sidhari police arrested Mukesh Yadav (29), a resident of Hyderabad Chhatwara, for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of arranging jobs abroad.According to Jain, Yadav came under the cyber cell’s radar on Sunday while officers were examining suspicious bank accounts and ATM hotspots through the Pratibimb portal. During the exercise, police received information that a man luring people with promises of jobs in the Maldives was travelling to Chhatwara on a motorcycle.Acting on the tip-off, the Cyber Cell alerted the Sidhari police, and the joint team raided a food outlet along the highway, where Yadav was arrested.Police recovered two fake Maldives work permits, a mobile phone, an Aadhaar card, Rs 200 in cash and the motorcycle used by the accused.During interrogation, Yadav allegedly confessed that he downloaded the format of Maldives work permits from the internet and created forged documents by editing them on his mobile phone.Police said he used contacts developed while working in the Merchant Navy in Mumbai to gain the trust of labourers, promising them jobs and visas abroad before collecting money from them in instalments.The investigation also revealed a complaint from West Bengal in which Rs 21,000 had allegedly been fraudulently transferred to one of the accused’s bank accounts.ASP Chirag Jain said a case has been registered, and police are investigating the accused’s bank accounts, associates and the wider network involved in the fraud.
