Indian job-seekers tricked into counting trains for days

New Delhi police have opened a probe after a complaint was made about a job fraud in which dozens of Indian men from Tamil Nadu were tricked into counting the arrival and departure of trains and their coaches every day for eight hours for a month. The men, who were unaware they were victims of an employment scam, believed they were training for a job with the Indian Railways. Most people cheated by the alleged fraudsters are graduates with backgrounds in engineering and technical education. Subbuswam said he unknowingly put the men in contact with the alleged scammers, and alerted the police about the fraud. The victims paid between 200,000 rupees ($2,400; £2,000) and 2.4m rupees each to get the job, local media reported. For the one-month training which took place between June and July, the victims were duped of ₹ 2.67 crore by a group of fraudsters, according to the complaint lodged by 78-year-old M Subbusamy. Mr Subbusamy, an ex-serviceman, had put the victims in touch with the alleged fraudsters, but he has claimed that he was unaware that the entire thing was a scam and he too had fallen for their trap. 'Each candidate paid money ranging from ₹ 2 lakh to ₹ 24 lakh to Subbusamy who further paid these to a person named Vikas Rana. Rana posed as a deputy director in the Northern Railway office in Delhi,' 25-year-old Snethil Kumar, a victim from Madurai, said. Most of the victims are graduates with backgrounds in engineering and technical education. 'Though the training amount varied for various positions such as travel ticket examiners, traffic assistants or clerks, everyone underwent the same training, counting trains at stations,' he added. Speaking to PTI over the phone from his hometown in Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu, Mr Subbusamy said, 'Since my retirement, I have been helping unemployed youths of our locality to find a suitable job without any monetary interest.' In the FIR, he alleged that he met a person named Sivaraman, a resident of Coimbatore, in one of the MP quarters in Delhi. Sivaraman claimed to be very closely associated with MPs and ministers and offered to facilitate employment in the Railways for the unemployed in lieu of monetary gains. Mr Subbusamy further alleged that Sivaraman asked him to come to Delhi along with job seekers. 'Initially, I came with three job seekers and when the news of their job training spread in their villages in and around Madurai, 25 more candidates joined in,' Mr Subbusamy said. The Delhi police's economic offences wing started investigating the alleged scam in November but the news became public only last week. The men, who are from the southern Tamil Nadu state, were asked to stand at different platforms of the central railway station in Delhi for eight hours every day for about a month. They counted the trains that passed through the station daily, news agency Press Trust of India reported. The men were promised they would be hired as ticket examiners, traffic assistants or clerks in the railways, one of India's largest employers. One of the victims told The Indian Express newspaper that he had been looking for ways to support his family after the Covid-19 pandemic. 'We went to Delhi for training - all we had to do was count trains. We were sceptical of the activity, but the accused was a good friend of our neighbour. I feel ashamed now,' he said. Subbuswamy, the former army man who filed the complaint with the police, told PTI that he had been helping young men from his hometown in Tamil Nadu Virudhunagar district find jobs 'without any monetary interest' for himself. He said he met a person called Sivaraman who claimed to have connections with lawmakers and ministers and offered to find government jobs for the unemployed men. He then put Subbuswamy and the victims in touch with another man, who even took the candidates for fake medical examinations. The man later stopped answering phone calls from them. Some of the victims said they borrowed money to pay the scammers. Scams for government jobs are often reported in India, where millions of young people are desperate for stable, secure employment. In March 2021, police in southern Hyderabad city said they had arrested two men believed to have tricked around a hundred candidates who thought they were being hired by the railways.