Mumbai aspirant cheated of Rs 21 lakh in lure of medical seat

Maharashtra: Medical aspirants continue to be cheated of lakhs of rupees in the lure of medical admissions. Once again, a 19 year old Navi Mumbai aspirants has been cheated of Rs. 20.95 lakh, with the miscreants having fled. One however, was arrested by the police on Wednesday.

The CBD police got to know of the cheating episode when a Shamsunder Gupta, 24 filed a complaint on Tuesday, saying that two men had fooled his younger brother Suraj Kumar of lakhs on the promise of getting him an MBBS seat in one of the colleges of the city.

The culprits in this case are Sahar lahote, 35 and Nikhil Katmani, 28. The former ran Shri Ganeshay Consultancy and lived at the NRI complex, on Palm Beach Road in Nerul; while the latter is a resident of Goa.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Turbhe division, Kiran Patil, said, "Shamsunder complained to the CBD police station on May 30 that the two men said they would get his brother Surajkumar a seat in a medical college in Maharashtra."

He added, "The two took Rs20.95 lakh from the complainant for the admission. However, after Surajkumar did not get the admission, they realised they had been cheated."

Patil said, "The police team first targeted Lohote and analysed his mobile call records and found his location. He was planning to flee but was arrested before that."

Lohote was arrested by the police on May 31 at 8.35 pm from sector 15 in CBD Belapur, after the police lay a trap for him. The police were hopeful of arresting Katmani soon.

Patil said, "Senior police inspector of CBD police station Sangeeta Alphonso along with Rajput are investigating if the accused are involved in more such admission frauds. We are also looking into the possibility of more people being involved."

"We request all those who may have been cheated in a similar way by these or any other such agents to approach us. We also appeal to residents to beware of such scrupulous elements and only go through the proper process for college admissions,"Patil told HT.