Lucknow, May 14 (IANS): The UP Police Special Task Force (STF) have arrested three men for allegedly swindling unemployed youths of crores of rupees on the promise of providing them government jobs.

The accused posed as government officials and operated fake offices to dupe youngsters.

According to a press release issued by the STF, the three accused, Abhishek Pratap Singh from Lucknow, Athar Hussain from Sant Kabir Nagar and Neeraj Mishra from Kanpur were arrested from a rented house in Kursi, Barabanki.

Explaining their modus operandi, STF officials said the accused rented a house in a secluded place in cities across Uttar Pradesh and set up a fake office.

"The accused got job advertisements published in newspapers and held interviews at their rented offices. They used to charge Rs 2-4 lakh from every aspirant on the pretext of giving them jobs in various government departments," the statement said.

The accused used to hand over fake appointment, training and posting letters to these youths and also gave "fake training" to them.

After collecting the money, the accused abandoned the place overnight before targeting job aspirants in some other city.

The STF said that several fake identity cards, fake appointment letters of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, fake appointment letters of UP Jal Nigam and UP Forest Corporation, fake training letters of National Health Mission and four fake rubber stamps of secretary of UP Forest Corporation have been recovered.

The STF began probing the matter after receiving complaints against the accused. An FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code has been lodged against the accused.