Burla Police in Sambalpur district busted a major fake job racket that cheated hundreds of job seekers across western Odisha.
They arrested Rahul Ray (32), a native of West Bengal residing in Burla, and Padmalaya Tandi from Khetrajpur for collecting ₹12,000–₹15,000 per person by falsely promising sweeper jobs in government offices.
The duo operated under the name Armex Internet International Pvt Ltd and ran the scam across Sambalpur, Bargarh, Boudh, and Deogarh districts. During coordinated raids, police seized ₹62,01,000 in cash, two mobile phones, a van, a four-wheeler, and several forged documents including Aadhaar cards, passbooks, and photographs.
#SambalpurPolice cracked an inter district job fraud case & arrested 02 accused persons, seized ₹62,01,000/- ,02 mobile phones,01 van ,01 four wheeler & some documents (i.e. adhar card, passbook, photo) from their possessions vide pic.twitter.com/f9d53176dK
— SP SAMBALPUR (@SpSambalpur) October 23, 2025
Investigators found that the accused used fake recommendation letters and held community meetings to gain trust. The scam came to light when several women, who had paid but received no job confirmation, approached local leaders.
Sambalpur SP Mukesh Kumar Bhamoo confirmed that a sting operation led to the arrests. “We recovered ₹62 lakh in cash from different locations after several hours of search,” he said. He added that the racket had operated outside the district for nearly a year and had been active in Sambalpur for the past three months.
Police are now tracking UPI transactions to identify more people involved. They are also searching for Soumya Sahu from Bhubaneswar, who allegedly masterminded the operation. Sahu had earlier faced allegations in a sanitation contract fraud involving Sambalpur Municipal Corporation.
Meanwhile, confusion persists among victims. Some women, who had worked early morning shifts, claimed they received payment and questioned the arrests. Earlier, the Municipal Corporation issued a public notice clarifying that it had not conducted any official recruitment.
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