Pune: Police on Monday registered one more FIR against the founder and two directors of an IT company in Hinjewadi on the charge of duping at least 300 IT freshers under the pretext of training and placement in the firm.

The founder, Upesh Patil (37), has already been arrested. “We have sent a team to Nagpur in search of the directors, who are absconding,” inspector Hrushikesh Ghadge from the Hinjewadi police station told TOI.

Ghadge said 196 freshers, who were allegedly duped by the company, had so far approached police. “They collectively lost over Rs3.55 crore in the fraud.”

The officer said the IT company was registered in the name of Patil’s wife. Patil and his team used to visit engineering colleges and conduct informative sessions about the job opportunities in their company. The firm’s officials selected candidates through online interviews and then demanded between Rs1 lakh and Rs2.5 lakh for issuing appointment letters. These freshers received joining letters only after transferring the money to the company’s bank account, Ghadge said.

The firm gave them online training for two to three months, and some of the candidates were paid a stipend between Rs15,000 and Rs20,000, the police officer said. The company then pretended to organise an internal job posting exam and terminated most of these candidates. Some of these freshers then approached the Forum for IT Employees, Maharashtra, and the Hinjewadi police, Ghadge said.

Ghadge said the first FIR was registered on Aug 23. “We recorded the statements of 176 freshers in connection with that case.” The officer said that on Monday, a victim from Jalna district approached them. “He and 19 more were duped of Rs27 lakh by the company using the same modus operandi,” Ghadge said, adding they are expecting more victims to come forward and file complaints against the accused.

Both FIRs were registered under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust) and 318 (cheating) under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.