Mysuru: It’s a dream shattered for two well-educated youths from city who wanted to earn good money in Dubai. They were cheated by three conmen who posed as well-settled and highly-influential employers.

Chasing Dubai dreams, the youths ended up paying Rs. 9 lakh that they had borrowed from money-lenders, friends and family members. While one youth managed to escape from confinement in Dubai, the other youth is still in the unfamiliar and hostile foreign soil as his VISA has expired and has no clue on whom to approach.

The victims are the residents of Mandi Mohalla in Mysuru.

The victims have been identified as Mohammad Shifan, son of Mohammad Altaf Ahmed, a resident of Sawday Road and his relative Amir Khan. The accused have been identified as Syed Meerajuddeen and Mohin from Hyderabad and Jaffer from Dubai. Police said that Meerajuddeen was the kingpin of the racket.

Shifan, who had completed a diploma in Engineering, wanted to work in Dubai. He saw an advertisement in a newspaper in February this year calling interested candidates for “a good and a handsomely-paid job in Dubai”. Lured by the advertisement, Shifan called a telephone number mentioned in the advertisement.

Shifan was then asked to attend a walk-in interview at Hotel A.J. International in Bengaluru. At the interview, the prospective employers, however, told Shifan that he would not be selected as his qualification did not match the job requirement. A dejected Shifan returned from the interview hall.

CONMAN LAYS TRAP

At this point, Syed Meerajuddeen introduced himself to Shifan and promised a dream job in Dubai that could fetch him a salary that is equivalent to Rs. 1.25 lakh in Indian currency. He then gave Shifan his visiting card that bore the address of S.G. Narayan Layout near Lal Bagh. Unfortunately, Shifan did not cross-verify the address that was a fake address, the Police said.

Meerajuddeen then collected Shifan’s Resume and told him that he would get in touch with him soon. On Feb. 13 2017, Meerajuddeen came to Mysuru and told Shifan about an “excellent job opening” in Dubai and told him that if he paid Rs. 4.5 lakh, he could secure that paid him a fat salary.

Shifan then introduced his relative Amir Khan who also needed a job. Meerajuddeen told them that both of them would be given jobs and could stay together and they should pay Rs. 9 lakh. Both Shifan and Amir were on Cloud 9 and borrowed money to secure the jobs. They paid Meerajuddeen an advance of Rs. 1.5 lakh on the same day. They later paid Meerajuddeen Rs. 3.50 lakh through a bank.

FLIGHT TO DUBAI

On April 4, Meerajuddeen called Amir Khan to Hyderabad and told him that the job was ready along with VISA and he had to report immediately.

Accordingly, Amir flew to Dubai on April 9 from Hyderabad and he was received by Mohin and Jaffer who led him to a room and locked him up along with other people from India. Their rooms were constantly changed to avoid legal tangles and were not given any jobs, the Police said.

On April 15, Meerajuddeen contacted Shifan and told him that Amir had obtained the job and an amount of Rs. 4 lakh had to be paid if he (Shifan) had to get another job. Shifan paid the money and the VISA was arranged on April 16 for him to fly from Hyderabad.

FISHY DEAL

Once in Dubai, Shifan was also received by Mohin and Jaffer and was led into a room. Shifan, after interacting with other people who were with him, found the deal fishy. He tried to contact Amir and was unsuccessful. Meerajuddeen then came to Shifan’s room and made him sign certain papers.

Shifan somehow managed to flee from Dubai and after coming to Mysuru, he lodged a complaint against Meerajuddeen, Mohin and Jaffer on Oct. 9. Amir is still held up in Dubai and his VISA has expired.  

The Mandi Police, under the leadership of Inspector Laskshmikanth Talwar, have booked a case under Section 420 of the IPC. Definite clues of the conmen have been obtained and a Police team is leaving for Dubai next week to nab them.