Man poses as AI officer, dupes five of Rs5 lakh

A man posing as an Air India officer swindled Rs 5.5 lakh from five educated youths by promising them jobs in Air India and the Mantralaya.

Chandrakant Khedekar, 22, an unemployed youth who holds a diploma from ITI Agripada, introduced his father to his friends Amol Belwankar and Vijay Naik on May 6, 2011.

“During the meeting, Naik introduced himself as an officer in the Cargo division at Air India and even showed me his identity card, saying he had given several people permanent jobs in Air India,” said Chandrakant’sfather Balasaheb Khedekar, a postman working in Malabar Hill post office.

Khedekar paid Naik Rs 80,000 in cash when the conman told him that it was required if his son was to get the post, and later paid him an additional Rs 10,000 to pay the notary for an affidavit.

Chandrakant was then given an appointment letter on May 25, 2011 stating that he has been appointed as a “fitter” in Air India’s technical department, and asked to resume duty on June 6, 2011 at Pune airport.

Similarly, Naik cheated Sunita Chavan of Rs3 lakh, a clerk at the Malabar Hill post office, by promising her two graduate daughters jobs in Air India and the Mantralaya. He also extracted Rs1.60 lakh from Uttam Sawant, also a clerk at the post office, on the pretext of giving jobs to bothhis graduate sons. After Naik switched his phone off, the three parents went to his Andheri residence to find that the address was fake.

The sham came to light in May 2012 when the five youths along with their appointment letters went to the Air India office at Nariman Point where they learnt that the letters were bogus.