Think twice before accepting a “government” job offer | News Chennai

CHENNAI: Eng. S Suriyaprathapan he paid Rs 12 lakh for a job as a railway conductor but has been languishing in a tiny prison cell in Uttar Pradesh for more than 150 days. He has been led to believe that he has gotten a job on the railways. The police caught him with a fake railway ID and service pass.
A resident of Villivakkam, Suriyaprathapan got married just a year ago and was a contract employee with Metrowater till a year ago. His family pestered him to get a steady job. In early 2022, one Manimaran he approached Suriyaprathapan with an offer of a government job in railways through a “central minister’s fee”.

The deal was stalled for Rs 12 lakh. Manimaran took him to Lucknow to meet a “senior railway official”. Suriyaprathapan was provided with a railway ID card, letter of endorsement, service pass and service book.
On April 14, his family received a phone call from the Lucknow police stating that Suriyaprathapan had been arrested for fraud and that his ID card, membership letter and documents were fake. mother of him, Thillaivanihe had promised his jewels to arrange Rs 12 lakh for the job.

Suriya’s father, Sirarthanan, a retired railway employee, was hospitalized after learning that his son had been defrauded and was in jail. “We are now running from pillar to pillar to get him out on bail,” his relative Akash told TOI. This is just one case study among several families that were torn apart after they fell prey to a thriving collective of con men who make easy money defrauding government job seekers.
The lure of a government job can really push one off a cliff deep into a Kafkaesque abyss behind bars. As of October this year, over 67 lakh people had registered for government jobs in the state labor register. Fraudsters are fishing for these job seekers, police said.
An official at the Chennai police’s labor racketeering wing said it had recorded statements from 892 people who were victims of labor fraud and had received 586 complaints calling for action against the scammers. Of these, 75% of the cases involve scams promising government jobs.
To curb these scammers, the state police launched “Operation Job Scam” and arrested 50 people. Explaining the modus operandi, a senior official said that these scammers lure gullible people with the promise of government jobs such as assistants, drivers, jobs in railways, Tangedco and banks and arrange calls from fake officials.
G. Nagajothi, DCP, Central Crimin Branch, said it is not difficult to identify these scammers. “People should keep in mind that these jobs cannot be paid for in cash.”