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Maharashtra: Inter-state racket of medical college admission busted, five held

Some of the accused are MBAs who used to dupe students in order to lead a lavish lifestyle.

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The Economic offense Wing (EoW) of Navi Mumbai police arrested five persons and busted an inter-state gang who cheated several aspirants seeking admission in medical colleges in Navi Mumbai and other states. The gang had committed the crime in an organised way and had even opened an office ‘The Aspiration’ at Sanpada railway station complex where they had hired a dozen of workers.

Police said that a few members of the gang are MBA and had even worked in call centre and they used to cheat people to live a lavish lifestyle. They were arrested from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. A total 12 persons were involved in the crime and seven of them are still at large. Arrested have been identified as Abhisekh Ashutosh Jha, 25, Saurabh Singh, 24, Gaurav Singh, 26,, they are resident of Meera Road in Mumbai and Sushil Verma, 30, a resident of Rajasthan and Hemndra Sarcar, 31 a resident of Delhi. Saurabh was out from Ujjain jail last year in similar cheating case.

Shivaji Awte, senior police inspector of EoW said that they had cheated at least 17 aspiring students to the tune of Rs3,01,00,000. Only Rs10.43 lakh was left in their office bank account when police seized it. He added that arrested accused claimed that they spent all these money for a lavish lifestyle. They even spent Rs7 lakh in a single night in a dance bar. A few parents had lodged complaint at Sanpada police in September last week after the gang which were operating from an office in Sanapada station complex fled with money. They had promised aspiring students admission in well known colleges in Navi Mumbai and other states under management quota and had taken money in the range of Rs20 lakh to Rs40 lakh through cash, online transfer and even through cheque.

They had asked students to come at their office on September 23, 2016 to collect admission details. They told students that the final list of selected students through NEET was to be out on September 30 and they would get their admission confirmation a week ahead. But, when student mostly from other states like Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Assam came to collect their details on September 23, they found the office was closed. After, their repeated attempt to reach them failed, they lodged a complaint.

According to police, the gang had left nothing behind to trace them as they had used all fake documents like PAN card, Adhard, Voter ID among others to get office on rent, opening bank account and even home for rent. Awte said, “They had even took all office items like furniture, computer on rent and also paid salary to all workers in time to mitigate chance of any suspect.” However, a parent had recorded a video while giving money to one of them and this led to arrest. “With the video, police searched similar face in social media which required a lot of hard work and finally, we arrested all them at a single time from four places in three states,” said Awte.

Police said that they used social media to reach aspiring students. “They had posed details of admission under management quota in Facebook and asked to call. When students called, they asked them come at their office with their parents. They had even signed an agreement in Rs100 stamp paper and asked to transfer money through online like RTGS,” said Awte. Now, the EoW is looking remaining seven accused to find out how many people they have cheated. “They had admitted some students in an engineering college in Rajasthan under management quota with the consent of college and they made little money. But, in these cases no college is involved,” added Awte. 

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