The Cyber Cell of Goa Police arrested an Assam-based fraudulent recruiting agent in Mumbai.
The Cyber Cell in a statement said Sumit Upadhyay, a resident of Guwahati, was arrested in a joint operation conducted by police agencies from Assam and Mumbai when he was about to leave Mumbai by flight.
It has been alleged that Sumit Upadhyay lured aspiring sailors for jobs and cheated them.
The Goa Police launched an operation against Sumit Upadhyay on the basis of a complaint lodged by a shipping company, Ouvert Marine, whose website he had cloned to allegedly cheat job aspirants in shipping companies.
“The complaint by Ouvert Marine said some unknown persons had created a fake website of the company impersonating it,” the statement said.
“They would then issue placement letters to aspiring sailors and ask them to pay fees for processing placements up to Rs 5 lakh per victim. Several complaints were received in this regard by the Director-General, Shipping,” it added.
The accused absconded after the Cyber Cell of Goa Police took down the fake website.
The statement said he was on the run using “fake identities, sim cards and travelled across Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Mumbai and Guwahati”.
“The accused then attempted to abscond to Mumbai where a joint team of ATS Mumbai under Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Shivdeep Lande, and led by Police Inspector Daya Naik, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Sahar Airport, and Cyber Cell Goa officials apprehended him in the plane,” the statement further said.