Shimla: Police have arrested five more people in connection with issuing fake appointment letters for government jobs in the Himachal Pradesh Secretariat. The investigation so far has revealed that the accused have cheated 25 youth and taken lakhs of rupees from them in the name of jobs.
Police had arrested accused Parikshit Azad (28), a resident of Kotkhai, Shimla, in the case on Tuesday. Late Wednesday night, three accused from Solan, one each from Joginder Nagar and Junga in Shimla were arrested.
Earlier on Tuesday night, the police raided the rented house of the main accused Parikshit Azad (28) in Vikas Nagar and seized six fake appointment letters, printer, laptop, mobile, envelopes, diary and other documents.
On Wednesday, the police produced the accused in the court and took him on remand. Now the investigation team is taking the investigation forward because of the possibility of involvement of a big gang in the entire episode.
Initial investigation has revealed that the accused has duped about 25 unemployed people by promising them government jobs. Many of these youth have been issued appointment letters for February and March to join the job.
According to the police investigating the case, on February 19, Paras, resident of Palampur in Kangra district, had appeared before the Special Administration Department of the Secretariat with the appointment letters of Peon and Ajay clerk.
When Paras and Ajay reached the secretariat, the appointment letters turned out to be fake. After this, after the complaint received from the Secretariat Deputy Secretary, both the youths were interrogated and it was found that the accused Parikshit had issued them fake appointment letters after depositing about Rs 50 to 75 thousand rupees from both of them.
After this, the Chhota Shimla police station team started an investigation under the leadership of DSP Amit Thakur and immediately arrested the accused.
After interrogation, by 4 am on Wednesday, the police had seized other documents including items related to making fake appointment letters from Parikshit’s room.
Right now, more information is being collected from the accused. The DSP said that every aspect of the case is being investigated in detail.
Appointment letters were prepared in the rented house itself.
Accused Parikshit used to prepare fake appointment letters for clerk and peon posts in his rented house. By issuing these to the youth, he used to cheat them of Rs 50 to 75 thousand.
Parikshit used to get the youth to deposit money in his own account. The investigation team has recovered DO letter, black, blue, green and red pens, diary and other documents from the rented house.
Apart from this, the investigation team has found important information related to fake appointment letter in the diary.
Burnt stamps before police raid
It is said that the accused was aware of the police raid. The accused had burnt some suspicious items before the police arrived. Government stamps are also burnt in these.
Police have taken samples of ashes from the spot and sent them to Forensic Lab Junga for testing.