The CBD Belapur police has arrested a man for duping a student from Bihar of ₹20.95 lakh by promising MBBS admission in the management quota.
Shyamsundar Pramodkumar Gupta (24) registered a police complaint on May 30 against his friend Nikhil Katmani (28), a resident of Goa, and Sagar Tanaji Lohate (35), a resident of Nerul, for cheating his younger brother Surajkumar Gupta.
Lohate was arrested on May 31, but Katmani is still at large. The police said Katmani charged Shyamsundar ₹45,000 for introducing him to Lohate, who promised to get his brother admission in the management quota. In 2015, when MBBS admissions began, Gupta transferred ₹20.95 lakh to Lohate’s bank account and he invested the money in a property. Lohate failed to deliver on his promise that year and assured them of a seat the following year. When Shyamsundar realised the promises were fake, he filed a cheating case with CBD Belapur police.
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Kiran Patil, Asssistant Commissioner of Police, Turbhe Division, said, “Shyamsundar said he earlier secured admissions through the management quota. But for the past two years the admission process had moved online making it difficult to gain seats.” Sangeeta Alphonso, Senior Police Inspector at CBD Belapur police station, said, “His brother meanwhile joined a BSc course in a college in Bihar.”
Soon after the case was registered, Lohate went missing. He was nabbed from Andheri by tracking his mobile and Call Detail Record. He was produced before the court and has been remanded in police custody till June 5. Lohate, a MBA graduate, was staying with his parents and wife at NRI Complex on Palm Beach road in Nerul. For the last five years, he had been running Ganeshaya Consultancy from Building No. 47 in the same complex.
The police are now investigating if Lohate had cheated other students. Mr. Patil said, “I request people to report cases of admission fraud and not to approach any agency or consultancy to gain admission.”
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