Several victims had been lured by two youngsters with false promises of government jobs as Junior Assistants in GHMC Khairatabad.
Based on a tip-off, the Hyderabad Police Commissioner's North Zone Task Force busted a fake government job racket in the city.
They also nabbed two fraudsters - R Rajashekar, an engineering graduate aged 29, and Ramakanth, aged 25 - who were cheating innocent unemployed youth with false promises of government jobs as Junior Assistants in GHMC Khairatabad, and collecting huge amounts from them by delivering forged copies of appointment orders.
The cops seized Rs 1,15,000 in cash, two cell phones, bio-data forms, forged appointment orders and joining certificates, copies of educational proof and other incriminating material from their possession.
The fraud came to light when on January 24, 2018, a victim B Sai Kiran, a marketing employee, lodged a complaint with the Saifabad PS stating that the accused had approached him on the pretext of arranging a government job as a Junior Assistant in GHMC Khairatabad, and had demanded Rs 3 lakhs for it.
Upon investigation, it was found that the duo had cheated seven persons of an amount of Rs 3,15,000 that the former had collected as processing fees, and delivered forged joining order copies to all of them.
Their modus operandi after collecting the money from the innocent candidates was to prepare fake verified copies of education proof seemingly endorsed by Rajeshwari Tiwari, IAS, Secretariat, and affix those with joining order copies on papers resembling the letterheads of Baba Fasiuddin, Deputy Mayor, GHMC, along with a letter stating appointment in the Town Accounts section under the GHMC letterhead - all forged in a local internet centre.
The copies would then be sent via both post and email to the victims resembling the genuine process, after which the fraudsters would cut contact with the victims and flee with the money.
Following the arrest, the police appealed to citizens to beware of such frauds by brokers and said that government jobs were given purely on the basis of standardized examinations and merit.
They also asked citizens to remain alert and report any such instances to the police with due haste.