New Delhi, August 18, 2006: Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja is embroiled in an ironical controversy. A special investigation by CNN-IBN has found fake job scamsters in Haryana may have used her. CNN-IBN team has documentary evidence and has met victims who paid up to Rs. 2 lakh each for jobs they claim that Selja Kumari urged them into taking up.

Involved in the scam are a local scamster P.S. Sandhu and D.K. Bansal, the Congress MLA from Ambala Cantonment, which incidentally is Selja Kumari's Lok Sabha constituency. They set up a fake Public Sector Undertaking called Agrofed and duped hundreds of youth across seven states. The duo are under the scanner for setting up a fake Public Sector Undertaking called Agrofed and duping hundreds of youth across seven states.

"I feel very sad that such a thing has happened. Lot of innocent people have been taken for a ride ... that I should have may even be indirectly have recommended them. It was wrong on my part.,” said Kumari Selja, Minister of Urban Employment

Sandhu's political connections with the Congress Party leadership in Haryana ensured that nobody doubted his fake employment letters. In 2003, he was jailed for posing as a Director of the Sports Authority of Haryana and issuing fake appointment letters to job seekers. Today, Sandhu is back in prison, accused of floating a bogus public sector unit - Agro-Fed.

CNN - IBN IMPACT

Trilochan Singh, an Independent MP has raised the issue of the scam in The Rajya Sabha based on the CNN-IBN Investigation. In Ambala, shops have shut down and traders are protesting against MLA D.K Bansal and The Congress Party.