Mumbai: Government Official Loses Rs 61 Lakh to Fraudster

A government official recently lost Rs 61 lakh to a fraudster in lieu of securing an MBBS seat for his daughter at a Pune-based medical college.

The 40-year-old accused, identified as Sudip Syama Chakraborty, was tracked down by the airport police and arrested at Vile Parle. He was remanded in police custody by the local court, while two of his associates are still being searched by the police.

Also Read: NEET Counselling: MCC issues notice for candidates seeking MBBS admissions at JIPMER

According to a recent HT report, the official's daughter couldn't secure herself a seat in a medical college given her low scores in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exam. In a ploy to obtain the amount, the accused managed to fraudulently convince the official of getting his daughter admitted to a medical college in Pune.

He assured the official of having a strong network within the reputed colleges. In a pretext of getting her admission to the MBBS course, he asked for 30 lakh rupees as a token amount for initiating her admission process.

The accused had collected from the father, as a part of his gambit, a total sum of 61.25 lakh rupees by September. Meanwhile, with no advancements in the admission process, the official developed suspicion.

He then started fetching more details about the man on the internet when he found him associated with a medical seat scam. Consequently, he resorted to the police and filed a complaint.

"The official later searched for the accused's name on the internet and discovered a news article in which a man with the same name was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police for duping several students, collectively to the tune of ₹1 crore, by promising them seats in medical colleges. The official then approached the police," the officer told the Hindustan Times.

He added that Chakrabarty is a history-sheeter and there are more than eight cases of cheating registered against him at Goregaon, Oshiwara, and Bangur Nagar stations in Mumbai as well as at Kothrud (Pune) and Hanehalli (Karnataka) police stations and the Jammu and Kashmir crime branch.

The police have registered a case under the following sections:

• Section 419: Punishment for cheating by personation
• Section 420: Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property
• Section 120 (B): Punishment of criminal conspiracy
• Section 34: Common intention of the Indian Penal Code
• Section 66 (C): Punishment for identity theft
• Section 66 (D): Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource of the Information Technology Act

Also Read: NEET 2020: MCC releases instructions for MBBS, BDS candidates