Brain behind Kerala job racket behind bars

Brain behind Kerala job racket behind bars
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

Kochi, Oct 9: The Central Bureau of Investigation has nabbed the kingpin of a major racket that conned many a Kerala youth into paying up huge amounts by offering jobs and admissions to professional courses in various prestigious institutions in the country.

N Angamuthu, himself a senior assistant with the National Textile Corporation at Coimbatore, was trapped at Guruvayur while accepting Rs 50,000 as bribe from Viju, a Tiruvalla youth who had tipped off the CBI about the fraud. Angamuthu, whom the CBI records address as ``a habitual offender'', has been remanded to judicial custody till October 11.

According to highly-placed sources, Angamuthu was allegedly involved in several cases of duping youth who remitted lakhs of rupees with him to see their dreams materialise. He had given the agency the slip in 1997 though two other FACT employees with whom Angamuthu had connived with were then arrested.

Sources, while throwing light on his modus operandi, said Angamuthu promised jobs in banks, public sector undertakings, private enterprises and admissions to MBA, MBBS and other professional courses in colleges in Coimbatore and other parts of the country. He airs feelers about ``job opportunities'' through friends and lures job-hunters into the trap.

``His prey are not always people known to him. Take this instance, Angamuthu operated through Viju K E of Tiruvalla who he had casually acquainted in Coimbatore,'' an officer pointed out.

Viju, a BE (mechanical) working with a city-based computer firm, was approached by Angamuthu in the first week of September. ``He told Viju that four posts of deputy managers at the NTC were lying vacant and that the company was looking for MBAs to fill them. Viju bit the bait as his brother Vinodkumar was a jobless post-graduate in business administration.''

Viju, along with three other youth, met Angamuthu at a hotel here in September. Each of them was asked to pay Rs 2 lakh. Angamuthu came again on September 5 and collected Rs 50,000 each from them as the first instalment. He even issued receipts that stated that the amount was a friendly loan which carried no interest burden on it. On October 4 he contacted Viju again and asked the latter to come to Coimbatore with the balance amount. But by this time everybody was suspicious and hesitated to pay the money.

Though Angamuthu was asked to come to Kochi, he refused and insisted that they should finish off the deal in Coimbatore. Smelling a rat, Viju approached the agency. Soon independent witnesses were arranged and a trap, was laid officials said.

After repeated attempts, Angamuthu agreed to come to Guruvayur where top sleuths and Viju waited for him. After a cautious Angamuthu refused to come to Viju's room, he was asked to meet the latter in front of the East Nada. And as he accepted the money CBI officials pounced on him and ``finished off the deal''.