Eight job seekers in Meerut allege they paid a combined ₹41.80 lakh over nearly two years chasing a bank job that never existed, in a case that has now led to an FIR against five people accused of running a fake recruitment scheme centred on Central Bank of India appointments. Police in the Medical police station area registered the case after complainant Ishwar Singh, a resident of Jagriti Vihar, alleged the accused strung along him and seven acquaintances with repeated assurances that ultimately went nowhere.
The accused have been identified as Parmesh Kumar Tyagi, his son Dev Tyagi, Arpit alias Mihir Anand, Sushant Tyagi alias Prateek and Rajesh Sharma. According to the complaint, the scheme unfolded gradually rather than through a single upfront demand, a structure that appears to have kept victims invested even as the promised appointments repeatedly failed to materialise.
A recruitment pitch built over months
Ishwar Singh told police he first met Parmesh Tyagi in April 2024, when Tyagi allegedly offered to arrange positions at Central Bank of India in exchange for roughly ₹5 lakh per candidate. The following month, Singh reportedly visited Tyagi’s residence along with seven others interested in the opportunity, where they were introduced to Dev Tyagi and Arpit, and further discussions about the alleged recruitment process took place.
Between May 2024 and December 2025, the eight candidates collectively paid ₹41.80 lakh through a mix of cash and UPI transactions, according to the complaint. The accused allegedly promised an initial daily-wage role that would convert into a permanent appointment, with the entire process expected to conclude within about 90 days, a specific and confident timeline that investigators say lent the scheme credibility it did not deserve.
To reinforce that credibility, the accused allegedly arranged phone conversations between candidates and a woman introduced as an HR manager, who assured them their appointments were imminent. That single detail, a named point of contact seemingly inside the institution, is a recurring feature in fraudulent recruitment cases across India, where an apparently official-sounding intermediary often does more to secure a victim’s trust than any paperwork.
A familiar template across India
Fake recruitment schemes targeting public sector and bank jobs have surfaced repeatedly across the country in recent years, frequently sharing this same architecture of staged legitimacy. A Western Railway vigilance operation in Mumbai uncovered a racket that had allegedly defrauded around 300 candidates of roughly ₹21 crore through false railway job promises, while a Navi Mumbai man was arrested last year for allegedly posing as an Income Tax Commissioner, complete with a marked vehicle and fake identity cards, to swindle more than 40 job seekers of over ₹2 crore. Delhi Police separately dismantled a racket using a fabricated government body name to solicit registration fees through fraudulent recruitment websites.
What distinguishes cases like the Meerut one is the involvement of a specific, well-known public sector bank as bait, a detail that tends to override the scepticism candidates might otherwise apply to less familiar or informally advertised opportunities. Central Bank of India, like other public sector banks, conducts recruitment strictly through its official website and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection process, never through individual intermediaries promising guaranteed placement for a fee, a distinction fraud victims across these cases have repeatedly discovered only after money has already changed hands.
Investigation turns to the money trail
With the FIR now registered, police say they will examine the cash payments, UPI transaction records, bank account details and mobile communications exchanged between the accused and the complainants. A central question for investigators is whether the accused ever initiated any genuine contact with Central Bank of India regarding these candidates, or whether the entire arrangement rested on fabricated assurances from the outset.
Officers are also trying to establish whether other job seekers, beyond the eight named in this complaint, were targeted through the same method, and are expected to look closely at the identity and alleged role of the woman presented to candidates as an HR manager. According to Circle Officer Civil Lines Vishwajyoti Rai, the investigation is underway and further legal action will depend on what the evidence shows.
The case adds to a growing body of similar complaints nationally, underscoring a consistent piece of advice from law enforcement: candidates should verify recruitment claims exclusively through an institution’s official channels and treat any demand for payment from an individual promising guaranteed employment as an immediate warning sign, regardless of how convincing the surrounding assurances may appear.
