Six arrested for cheating job seekers

JAKARTA (JP): Three people arrested by the South Jakarta police for cheating job seekers were sent yesterday to the East Java police because they allegedly committed their crimes in East Java.

The chief of the South Jakarta Police Detectives Capt. Ricko A. Dahniel said yesterday that the three, identified as Ros, Lik and Sup, were taken to East Java by police car.

"We sent three others to Bandar Lampung Police, in southern Sumatra for the same reason," Ricko said.

He said the suspects had allegedly extorted about Rp 1.6 billion (US$666,000) from job seekers. They were arrested last week at the Ministry of Transmigration and Resettlement of Forest Squatters' office on Jl. Taman Makam Pahlawan Kalibata, in South Jakarta.

Some of the job seekers, who had high school and university qualifications, said they had paid between Rp 4 million and Rp 10 million to brokers who promised them jobs at the ministry.

The police have questioned and arrested 12 people believed to have cheated 288 job seekers, mostly from southern Sumatra and East Java. "Six of them were released because they were innocent," Ricko said.

The cheat has upset Minister Siswono Yudohusodo. He said Wednesday he would punish any ministry staff found guilty of cheating the job seekers. (jun)