Team Herald
PONDA: From con victim to agent of fraud – the story of Sandeep Parab, the Water Resources Department (WRD) engineer at the centre of the sensational cash-for jobs investigation, has come full circle in less than a week.
The Mardol Police on Sunday arrested Sandeep in a cheating case for duping a gullible job aspirant of Rs 5 lakh and passing the money on to Deepashree Sawant, the arrested queen-pin in the scam that has rocked Goa recently. It was only last Thursday that Sandeep himself had gone to the
police, accusing Deepashree of defrauding him of Rs 3 lakh with the promise of a government job for his daughter.
Over the past few days, a series of O Heraldo reports has pointed out that many operatives who were actually middlemen for the scam masterminds in identifying gullible job aspirants were now turning on their bosses to save themselves from legal action. Sandeep’s arrest is a clear indication that this narrative is true.
After Deepashree’s arrest, multiple complaints have been pouring in over the last few days that involved Sandeep’s name and it was becoming clear that the net was closing in around him. But the tables finally turned when Marcel resident Vishal Gaonkar (33) filed a police complaint against Sandeep, leading to his arrest.
According to Gaonkar’s complaint, Parab had made him an offer of securing a job as a Lower Division Clerk (LDC) in the Forest Department for a payment of Rs 14 lakh. Gaonkar paid him Rs 5 lakh as token amount in February 2024, which was then passed on to Deepashree. But the promised job never materialised, leading him to go to the police.