The agency's proprietor, Satyen, has vacated his one-room office and fled and his three employees too are missing since Monday. The office receptionist, Kinnari, has been arrested.

The racket came to light on Thursday when candidates, who had been asked by Satyen to collect their Mumbai-Dubai for on July 25 air tickets found the office locked. The enraged victims broke into the office and ransacked it.Though the police seized as many as 125 passport and some documents, including receipt books and service agreements of a Dubai-based company, Al-Hoogani Construction, several applicants complained that their passports were missing.

Piecing together thesequence of events, sources said that the agency had placed an advertisement on June 10 promising jobs in Al-Hoogani. Interviews were held in the second week of June, and those selected were given service agreements from the same company. The service agreements bear the stamp and signature of ``Badab Singh, Consul-General of India in Dubai'', apart from the stamp and signature of a company official, Abdulla Ali Almalkfalli.Though Dubai's Consulate in Mumbai, on inquiries by candidates, said it had issued some visas to the Ankleshwar-based agency, it said it wasn't sure whether these were tourist visas or for employment.

The police found some phone numbers of Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi and Mumbai to which Satyen used to make calls. Investigating officer PSI Baria said the Thrivunanthapuram number could be of Satyen's residence. He is probably from Kerala as he used to speak Malayalee with South Indian candidates. However, a South Indian candidate who made a call to that number said the receiver identifiedherself as a Muslim.

Ani Nanu of Akota village in Vadodara, said he was interviewed on June 11 for the job of a welder. On June 12, he was sent to Jain Medical Centre in Mumbai for a medical examination, for which he was charged Rs. 1,200.Nanu was handed over the service agreement and a group visa for eight persons allegedly issued by the United Arab Emirates consulate in Mumbai. On July 16, he was asked to pay Rs. 15,000, including Rs. 12,000 for his Mumbai-Dubai ticket. The payment, he says, was prompt.

Several others like Santosh, Shahji Samuel, M K Anuk Kumar, all from Ankleshwar, Jaya Prakash K P Prabhakaran, a native of Kerala and currently working in Valsad, and Kumar Samarajan, who work as welders and fitters in private companies also said that they had paid Rs. 15,000 each apart from the the money spent on medical examination in Mumbai.