Pune IT Industry Association Seeks Special Investigation into Alleged Hiring Scam Involving Fake Firms

Pune IT Hiring Racket Exposed: FITE Seeks Special Investigation Team

In a move to address the growing issue of IT job scams in Pune, the Forum for IT Employees (FITE) has written to the Maharashtra Chief Minister and several other ministers, including labour, IT, and Higher and Technical Education, seeking the establishment of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the large-scale fresher job scams.

According to a letter seen by Moneycontrol, FITE has named several Pune-based IT companies, alleging them of being "fake consultancies" and "fraudulent IT companies" who have exploited unemployed freshers across the state. The union has identified seven such alleged companies, indicating thousands of victims and freshers being cheated. FITE estimates that there could be at least 20-30 more similar fraudulent companies operating across Maharashtra, impacting over 10,000 freshers and job seekers.

The employee union has named all the companies currently under police investigation or in the process of getting FIRs registered against them. Over the past 6-8 months, several company owners have reportedly been arrested for allegedly collecting money from freshers under the false promise of providing IT jobs.

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FITE has urged the government to constitute a SIT to conduct a comprehensive investigation into these organized job scams, identify all individuals and entities involved, recover funds wherever possible, and ensure strict legal action against the perpetrators. The union has also called for a stronger monitoring mechanism to keep such recruitment agencies and private IT firms in check.

Growing Concerns Over Fake Job Experience

Pavanjit Mane, President of FITE, has highlighted the growing concern of fake job experience among larger IT companies while hiring. He stated that employees after onboarding were made to go through fake training programmes and these IT companies didn't even have any actual projects in the pipeline, creating 'fake experience' on the candidate's resume.

The modus operandi of this scam involves hiring consultants targeting unemployed freshers and early career professionals with longer career gaps by luring them with good pay packages in exchange of fees that could range between Rs 1 to 4 lakhs or more. Once they received the payment and hired the employee, they weren't given any actual work and weren't paid salaries and provident fund money for months until they complained.

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This issue has been reported in detail by Moneycontrol in March, highlighting the need for urgent action to address the growing IT hiring rackets in Pune.