Kollam: Nearly 300 people have reportedly fallen victim to a massive fraud to the tune of crores of rupees after huge amounts were allegedly swindled from them promising lucrative nursing jobs in the US.
Out of the lot, 40 candidates from Kollam district who were promised jobs as nursing assistants in Virginia, USA, have registered complaints with various authorities alleging that they have been duped of Rs 60 lakh.
According to the complainants, the amount swindled from 300 people comes to crores of rupees.
The accused
The complaint has been filed against two people named James Raj and Joseph Daniel. The former is a retired Kerala Government employee who held the posts of additional secretary and printing director at the Secretariat. The latter is the Managing Director of Edufuturistic Learning Pvt Ltd based at Anna Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
How it all happened
A few representatives of the duped job seekers met the media here the other day and explained how the latter were cheated.
In January 2022, the participants of a four-week online Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course conducted by the Unitatis Universitas Salvatoris — meaning Savior Unity University — were assured EB3 visas within six months.
The money for the course was transferred to the bank account of Joseph Daniel's firm. The applicants were impressed that Joseph Daniel's institution was an agency of the university and hence they decided to remit the amount. Sums ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh were collected from each of them. Around 300 students from across Kerala appeared for an exam in different batches from January to June 2022.
Later they were promised a visiting visa instead of the EB3 Visa. Joseph Daniel also took an additional Rs 1,50,000 on the pretext of taking a date for the visa interview. A person who participated in the visa interview was taken to a separate room by the US Embassy authorities on suspicion and questioned.
Four others who received the visiting visa were called by US embassy officials over the phone and questioned again. Their visas were later cancelled, the representatives alleged. They also claimed Joseph Daniel told a man who failed a visa interview to enter the US illegally from the African country of Burundi.
The representatives of the cheated job aspirants were Bincy Thomas, John Britto Justin, Bijo Joseph, A Melbin, and Dixon.
The case
Complaints have been lodged with the Chief Minister's Office; the NRI cell of the Kerala Director General of Police's office; Department of Non-Resident Keralite's Affairs (NORKA); Member of Parliament, Kollam; Kollam Police Commissioner's Office, and Chavara police station.
A case was registered at Chavara police station on July 16 following a directive from the Chief Minister's Office as per the complaint received there. An email was received by the complainants following the registering of the case, which stated that the amount would be refunded from July 27 and a lawyer from Kozhikode had been entrusted with the task.
However, the lawyer later made it clear that he had not received any direction from the agency and also any money.