HYDERABAD: Swiss dream of 95 unemployed youth, mostly from Warangal, came crashing down after a city-based job consultancy firm collected lakhs of rupees and left them in the lurch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in the early hours of Friday.

The youth realized they were conned by BS Rao Group Consultancy only after the scheduled Switzerland-bound flight took off without them. They caught hold of one of the person running the consultancy (who was accompanying them) and thrashed him before the airport security personnel intervened and took him into custody. Later, the youth staged a protest at the Punjagutta police station.

BS Rao Group consultancy, located at Amrutha Villa near Yashoda Hospital at Somajiguda and run by Dinesh, Yousuf, Pavan, Praneeth and others, had collected money ranging from Rs 1.6 lakh %and Rs 2 lakh from each candidate by assuring jobs in pharma and chemical %firms in Switzerland.

"Initially, our passports were taken along with Rs 76,000 assuring that visa will be ready in a few days. Subsequently, they informed us that visa was ready and took another Rs 86,000. Some were also given flight tickets, which we suspect may be fake,'' a job fraud victim, who participated in the dharna near the Punjagutta police station, said.

None of the victims was given stamped passport beforehand and they were told to report at the RGI Airport informing that 5 am was the check-in time as the flight's departure time was 7 am. The youth landed at the airport along with their family members and friends.Yousuf, a native of Warangal, had reportedly lured maximum number of victims from his district. Sources said most victims had sold their valuables like gold and other property to pay the consultancy.

At RGIA, Pavan told the youth that he would accompany them to Switzerland so that it would not arise any suspicion among the victims.

"I accompanied my son and another relative to the airport. As the boarding time neared, we were not handed over the passport. When we questioned Pavan, he kept telling us that passports were on the way. As the time ticked away and the scheduled flight took off, we realised that the job consultancy duped us. Immediately, Pavan was nabbed and handed over to police,'' Khairatabad corporator Shaik Shareef , whose son Shaik Yousuf was one of the victims, told TOI.

Pavan, who was taken into custody by the RGIA security personnel, was later handed over to the Punjagutta police. Some of the victims staged a dharna at the police station demanding return of their passports and money.

"After preliminary investigation, we suspect Praneeth to be the main culprit and the passports might be in his custody,'' deputy commissioner of police (West Zone) VV Satyanarayana told TOI.

