Mantralaya job seekers pay heavy price for seeking short cuts | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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Mantralaya job seekers pay heavy price for seeking short cuts

ByManish K Pathak
Feb 01, 2023 01:14 AM IST

In December last year, Crime Branch started investigations into a widespread scam of government jobs, following a complaint by 26-year-old Sagar Jadhav, after he lost his savings to middlemen. At the time crime branch had registered 11 such cases; in a month the number has risen to 35

Mumbai: Sagar Jadhav, Yogesh Karande and Niketan Kudke have never met but are connected by a single-minded aspiration: to land a much coveted job at the state’s administrative headquarters, Mantralaya, and be comforted by its assured security. All three took short cuts to achieve their goals, which cost them dear.

Spotting a prey is easy -- under 30 job seekers from rural parts of Maharashtra who are struggling to make ends meet and willing to put everything they own on line. Social prestige and the promise of lifelong benefits are the draw. (HT PHOTO)
Spotting a prey is easy -- under 30 job seekers from rural parts of Maharashtra who are struggling to make ends meet and willing to put everything they own on line. Social prestige and the promise of lifelong benefits are the draw. (HT PHOTO)

In December last year, Mumbai Crime Branch started investigations into a widespread scam of government jobs, following a complaint by 26-year-old Jadhav, after he lost his savings to middlemen. At the time crime branch had registered 11 such cases; in a month the number has risen to 35.

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Spotting a prey is easy -- under 30 job seekers from rural parts of Maharashtra who are struggling to make ends meet and willing to put everything they own on line. Social prestige and the promise of lifelong benefits are the draw.

The con job

Jadhav fell for one such con. A friend introduced him to the alleged mastermind, Mahendra Sakpal, in 2019. Sakpal boasted about his contacts in Mantralaya and that winging a job was child’s play for him. The impressionable youth was easy to trap as Sakpal dropped names like Nitin Sathe, a secretary in the general administration department, and Sachin Dolas, a senior clerk in another department.

An excited Jadhav told his siblings – a brother and a sister – about the wish-granting genie and the possibility of all three working together at Mantralaya. Sakpal and his accomplice Mahendra Shirvale collected the required documents from the Jadhav siblings and 9 lakh in cash.

“Next, Sakpal returned with offer letters, assuring us that we would join the state government headquarters as clerks-cum-typists. We were also taken to JJ Hospital for a ‘pre-employment medical check-up’, following which we handed over the next installment of 11 lakh to him,” Jadhav said.

Finally, in June 2021, Jadhav and his siblings were taken to Mantralaya – a seat of power they had only seen on TV. Dolas, whose name Sakpal had dropped in their first meeting, received and led them to a room on the sixth floor. There were around 12 others in wait. Sathe, the other name Sakpal had mentioned, was at the helm of affairs.

Dolas told the Jadhavs that Sathe, a section officer, would interview them, which Dolas assured them, with a wink, was mere formality as they had received the money. It indeed seemed a cakewalk, as they were asked only basic questions about family background and educational qualifications.

The three returned home and waited for the appointment letter, which never came. All they got on repeated follow-ups were excuses – first, the lockdown, followed by other petty justifications, and finally, Sakpal’s claim that Sathe had fled with all their money.

The case file

The Jadhavs approached Chembur police where the FIR was registered and the probe handed over to the Unit VI of the Mumbai police crime branch. The blatant nature of the scam -- involving an interview in Mantralaya and medical check-up in a state-run hospital -- shook everyone.

Dolas, Sathe and Shirvale were traced and arrested on December 20, 2022, and Sakpal on December 22. Two others -- Satten Gaikwad and Gokuldas Rambhau Kathale – were arrested on January 20. Gaikwad, a labour contractor, lives in Sion. Kathale, a resident of Beed district, in Marathwada, worked at a petrol pump and doubled up as a labour contractor. He knew Gaikwad and drew people from Beed into the net, promising jobs in Mantralaya without a written exam.

Meanwhile, the Jadhavs have neither savings nor jobs; their fate shared by 31 others.

Beed resident Karande, 28, paid 11 lakh to the cons in December 2020. Karande is a BSc graduate from an Aurangabad college, married for four years with a three-year-old son and a two-month-old daughter and no money. The family sold its only piece of half-acre farmland to raise 8 lakh and borrowed the rest from a relative to pay the conmen.

“My father now works in other people’s fields as an agricultural labour and I have managed to get a job in a small-scale unit locally. We barely make 10,000 every month,” said Karande, his dreams of showing his children the magic of Mumbai dashed.

Another Beed resident, 30-year-old Kudke, was approached by a recruitment agent, who put him in touch with Sakpal. Like Karande, Kudke’s father too sold his land to raise 6 lakh to pay the frauds in August 2021. Over a year later, Kudke, who has already worked as a clerk in a school and a local bank, is today in Pune looking for a job. “I need to be able to send at least some money home. I can’t bear the thought of my father working in someone else’s farm now,” a distressed Kudke said.

The criminal nexus

Apart from the six arrested, cops are also probing the possible involvement of others in the racket. According to police, Sakpal and Sathe are the masterminds – the former a resident of Chembur who worked as an estate agent, while Sathe is a Nerul-based interior decorator. He has only studied till Class XII but speaks English and Marathi confidently, making him the right choice to conduct the fake interviews, said a police officer.

Dolas, a peon in Mantralaya, lives in the government quarters in Bandra. He flicked identity cards of retired Mantralaya employees and used them to slip in the victims – a feat that has stunned the police. Shirwale, a resident of Ulwe, Navi Mumbai, earlier lived in Chembur, where he first met Sakpal. He and the labour contractors, Gaikwad and Kathale, the police said, became Sakpal’s unofficial public relations (PR) machinery.

All of them knew the system well, such that they could pull off the medical tests with no one suspecting foul play. “Medical officers only conduct tests. They don’t enquire about the reasons behind it, especially when a batch of supposed recruits for government jobs comes in. They only hasten the process,” said an officer who is part of the investigating team.

Cops are yet to wrap their head around how the accomplices managed to pull off the scam at a protocol- and security-tight seat of power.

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