A private marketing firm here has been accused of subjecting its underperforming employees to degrading treatment, including making them walk on their knees like chained dogs and lick coins from the floor. The state Labour department has ordered a probe into the alleged inhuman workplace harassment after the disturbing visuals were aired by local television channels. As the issue came to the light, state Labour Minister V Sivankutty ordered an inquiry into the undated incident and instructed the district labour officer to submit an immediate report on the incident. The visuals purportedly showed a person using a leash to force a man to crawl on his knees on the floor, resembling a dog. Later, some employees told a TV channel that those who fail to achieve targets were subjected to such punishments by the management of the firm. According to police, the incident allegedly took place in connection with a private marketing firm functioning in Kaloor and the crime allegedly occurred a...
An Indian American has been arrested in New Jersey on charge of being part of a technical support scam that targeted more than 7,000 victims defrauding them of more than USD 13 million, a US Attorney announced Thursday. Charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Manoj Yadav appeared before US Magistrate Judge José R. Almonte in Newark federal court. "The defendant and his conspirators are alleged to have misled their numerous victims into thinking that they were a legitimate technology support company affiliated with a major software company," US Attorney Philip R Sellinger said. After claiming to provide technical support for issues involving the software company's popular accounting software, they allegedly charged the victims exorbitant fees for purported support services that were not authorized by the software company, he alleged. "We allege Yadav lied to software users and forced them to pay for services that would usually come free with the...