Nagpur: The Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of Nagpur Police has made another breakthrough in the investigation into a massive fake government job racket involving bogus interviews conducted at the Maharashtra state secretariat (Mantralaya). Officials confirmed the arrest of Vijay Patankar from Wathoda, marking the second major arrest in the case.
Earlier, the alleged mastermind Lawrence Henry (45), a resident of Mahalgi Nagar, was arrested from Mumbai. However, six more accused — including Shilpa Udapur (40), Vasantkumar alias Vasantrao Udapur (60), Nitin Sathe (41), Sachin Dolas (45), and a peon named Babar (55) — are still absconding.
The racket first came to light in 2019 when complainant Rahul Tayde from Sugat Nagar reported being cheated of ₹9.55 lakh under the pretext of securing a junior clerk’s post. To gain his trust, the gang allegedly arranged a medical test at JJ Hospital and even conducted a fake interview in a fabricated Mantralaya office room. Tayde was later handed a counterfeit Mantralaya ID card.
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Initially, the fraud was estimated at around ₹1.5 crore, but investigations have since revealed that dozens of candidates across Maharashtra may have been duped. Police now suspect the total fraud could run as high as ₹20–30 crore.
An EoW officer said, “More victims are coming forward, and fresh complaints are being registered. The actual scale of the scam could turn out to be much bigger than initially thought.”
