Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A major alleged IT recruitment fraud has come to light from Pune’s Hinjawadi, where hundreds of engineering graduates, freshers and interns claim they were cheated after being promised jobs, stipends and permanent employment by Pune-based Thynk Technology India. Police have arrested the company’s CEO, Harshal Thakare, while the search continues for other accused.
Investigators probing the case have uncovered what police describe as a carefully structured operation in which employees were divided across multiple small office setups and project teams.
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According to Senior Inspector Balaji Pandhare of Hinjawadi Police Station, Thakare allegedly avoided operating from a single large office and instead established several small setups at different locations.
Employees were distributed across various teams working on separate projects, with limited interaction between groups, making it difficult for them to understand the true scale of the company’s workforce and operations.
The investigation began after more than 700 employees, most of them software engineers, fresh graduates and interns, were allegedly left jobless when Thynk Technology India abruptly ceased operations without prior notice. The company operated from Hinjawadi Phase II and conducted large-scale recruitment drives across Maharashtra during 2025.
During questioning, Thakare allegedly told investigators that the company was working on 12 different projects, each involving a team of at least 50 employees. So far, around 80 employees have submitted written complaints to the police. Based on these complaints, police registered a case against Thakare under Sections 316(2) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Police said Thakare fled to Nashik and switched off his mobile phone after allegations against the company surfaced. However, after reports about the case appeared in the media, he allegedly contacted Pavanjeet Mane, president of the Forum for IT Employees (FITE), and threatened to drag him to the Labour Court. Mane shared the phone number with Hinjawadi police, who traced the location and arrested the accused.
Investigators are also searching for the company’s HR executive, Soumya Singh, and manager, Dhruvil Parekh, whose phones remain switched off. According to information provided by Thakare during the investigation, both had resigned from the company before the controversy surfaced.
Police have learned that the company allegedly maintained recruitment ties with several prominent engineering and IT colleges in Pune. During campus drives, students were offered employment opportunities and promised two months of training followed by a six-month internship carrying a monthly stipend of Rs 15,000.
Candidates were also assured that strong performers would be absorbed as permanent employees after one year. Investigators said Soumya Singh and Dhruvil Parekh played active roles in the recruitment process and campus outreach programmes.
One of the complainants, Saurav Nair, said he secured a campus placement with the company in December 2025 and was promised a permanent position. He underwent two months of online training from home before being asked to wait for office reporting instructions. According to him, company representatives continued to provide vague responses, and by April 2026 he realised that he had allegedly been cheated.
Another complainant, Vijayalakshmi Biradar, who moved to Pune from Latur for the job, alleged that money was collected from candidates across several districts through a platform called “Udaan”. She claimed the company projected itself as being associated with various government-linked initiatives while conducting recruitment drives in colleges. Biradar further alleged that educational institutions are now refusing to take responsibility for the placements.
A key aspect of the investigation concerns laptop deposits collected from interns. Assistant Inspector Sachin Wanganekar, the investigating officer, said preliminary findings suggest that interns were asked to deposit Rs 15,000 each for laptops issued to them. Police discovered that the laptops did not belong to the company but had been procured from external vendors.
According to investigators, Thakare obtained nearly 350 laptops from five different vendors and distributed them among employees. One vendor has already filed a complaint at Hinjawadi Police Station, alleging losses of around Rs 8.5 lakh.
Employees have also alleged that the company failed to pay salaries to freshers and interns for the past five months. FITE president Pavanjeet Mane said several employees had not received salaries since January and approached the police after repeated attempts to contact the management failed.
“We have arrested the company’s CEO, Harshal Thakare. A search is on for the other accused and efforts are underway to identify whether more individuals were involved in the alleged fraud,” Senior Inspector Balaji Pandhare said.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
