Conman floats airline, hundreds taken for a ride

Mumbai: It was a perfect con. First came the advertisements in January this year: business tycoon Narendra Goyal was set to launch a new airline called FA Airways. Then followed ads announcing recruitment for numerous posts. For details, candidates were asked to write to fa-airways@net. The website had been designed with attention to every detail.
On an appointed date, Goyal, the executive director of FA Airways, then strode into a plush office at Twin Arcade on the Andheri-Kurla road where applicants were anxiously waiting for their interviews.
He handed out over 200 appointment letters, but not before charging Rs 25,000-50,000 per candidate.
Today, even as MIDC police unravel the scam, they have estimated that the amount of money swindled would go up to Rs 15 crore.
The brain behind it all was Mohsin Ismail Mullah, who is now cooling his heels in the MIDC police lock-up along with his four associates.
They have been identified as Irfan Mullah, his son, Abdul Kasam Shaikh, Alex Daniel and Nissar Ahmed Pirzade. All have been arrested on charges of cheating and forgery.
03/08/06 S Ahmed Ali/Times of India

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