Couple held for fleecing job seekers, aide on run

Nashik: The Mhasrool police have arrested a couple on charges of cheating people of Rs 12-13 lakh by taking money from them in lieu of giving them work.
Rajendra Sayaji Devkate and his wife Mamta Pawar had allegedly been taking money from people as deposit in exchange for awarding them work of packing chocolates and biscuits in their office. Another suspect in the case, Chandrabhan Verma, is yet to be traced by the police.
A complaint of cheating was filed against the trio on April 16 at the Mhasrool police station by one of the victims, Geetanjali Gosavi, a resident of Shiv Samarthnagar, Shiv Mudra society.The police said that Devkate and his wife had set up an office, R S D Food Products, on the ground floor of Prakash Commercial and Residential Complex along Peth Road in the Mhasrool area.
Between January and March, the trio placed an advertisement seeking individuals for packaging chocolates and biscuits in their office, senior inspector Narendra Pingle said.
The suspects allegedly took money as deposit for awarding work from a large number of people from the nearby areas who responded to the ad.
The police said that the suspects even returned the deposit to the person who sought it to gain people's trust. As a result, more and more people started lining up at the suspects' office for work.
Over a period of time, the suspects had given jobs to over 50 people in exchange for a deposit of over Rs 12 to 13 lakh. But a few weeks ago, the suspects shut shop and even switched off their cellphones and could not be contacted.
The workers then approached the Mhasrool police station and lodged a case of cheating against them.
During the course of investigation, the police came to know that Devkate was hiding in Pachora in Jalgaon district and arrested him. Subsequently, his wife was also arrested from the city as she was about to escape from Mhasrool after getting news of her husband's arrest.