The Vijayawada police on Sunday arrested a man who had allegedly been cheating unemployed job aspirants by circulating edited versions of the state government’s job notifications on WhatsApp. According to the Vijayawada cybercrime police, the accused, a 41-year-old man identified as Gunti Judson, had been circulating an edited version of the state government’s job notification for recruitment to various posts to work in COVID-19 duties on a temporary basis in Krishna district. The government had issued the notification for doctors, staff nurses and other posts. Judson had allegedly altered the contract period to read as two years instead of three months, apart from sharing his own contact number and cheating aspirants who called him on the number.
With one such instance being reported to Vijayawada cybercrime police, the number advertised in the false job notifications was traced to Judson, who was arrested in Avanigadda town near Vijayawada on June 27. According to the police, Judson planned to circulate the false job notifications along with a few of his acquaintances. Apart from cheating aspirants looking to work in COVID-19 hospitals on a contract basis during the pandemic, he also allegedly collected money from aspiring candidates seeking various government jobs.
He allegedly collected Rs 90,000 from a man in Guntur with false promises of a job in Union Bank of India, Rs 50,000 from a man seeking the job of an engineer at HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited), and Rs 30,000 from six candidates looking to work as attenders in the Animal Husbandry department. Judson’s acquaintances Kasireddy Deepak Reddy, Kongara Naveen, Gosala Kusuma Kumar and Jangam Mahesh have allegedly cheated several unemployed youths in the two Telugu states to the tune of nearly Rs 5 lakh, police said, adding that efforts are underway to nab the remaining accused.
Another crime where the accused had allegedly taken advantage of the pandemic situation to steal from people came to light in Vijayawada a few days ago, when an investigation into a failed ATM robbery revealed a case of serial killings of senior citizens. A gang of five young men had allegedly been targeting elderly persons, especially women, living alone. They had allegedly killed at least six senior citizens in their homes at night and went on to steal their gold ornaments. According to the police, the accused were hoping that the deaths of elderly persons would not raise suspicion during the pandemic and that their bodies would be cremated in a hasty manner.