Bhubaneshwar, February 22: Police are still clueless on the whereabouts of the owner of a fly-by-night company, which duped around 300 youths, promising to provide jobs .
Although the aggrieved youths lodged an FIR in Town police station 20 days back, after they learnt that they were not getting jobs, police are yet to arrest the culprit .
Sources said, Manoj Panda, the owner of SK Enterprises, a consultancy company, allegedly collected around Rs 30,000 from each job aspirant, who came to him through an advertisement published earlier. Panda promised the youths to provide jobs within one month. As per his advertisement, the youths should get jobs like block coordinators, mobile tower maintenance operators, supervisors at towers etc .
Town police station IIC U S Maharana said that police have got his mobile number which could help them track Panda’s location. “We have launched a manhunt to track him. We also asked the Belpada police to remain alert as Panda belongs to Belpada”, said the IIC. He said that several associates of Panda have been quizzed .
There are around 43 job seekers from Kalahandi, Sonepur, Boudh and Balangir, who aspired to get jobs as security guards. Sridhar Budek, a security guard aspirant said that in the name of company, it is a racket functioning meticulously to cheat the job seekers. He said the company has collected nearly Rs 80 lakh from all the aspirants. Balangir SP Ajaya Sarangi said that police are well after the case. “As soon we receive intelligence inputs regarding his location, we will apprehend him”, said the SP. However, some confidential sources said that the culprit was moving freely in the town and also met some police officials outside police station unofficially. Sources further said that more aggrieved youths are expected to lodge FIR against Panda and make fresh demand of his early arrest before Balangir SP .
—Agencies