Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS) 

Bengaluru, Sep 16: A gang, consisting of 11 people, was arrested by the city police for allegedly luring and cheating aspirants of MBBS, engineering and dental courses, promising them of providing seats in reputed colleges of the state. 

According to the police, the gang had founded a consultancy service by the name Merit Wise Consultancy in the Jayanagar area of the city and gave false advertisement that they could facilitate admissions for aspiring students in reputed colleges. 

The arrested accused persons are identified as Ankit Kumar Singh, Rahul Singh, Seeju Daniel, Koushal Kumar, Tinku Mandal, Nitin, Muneesh, Kunal Kumar Singh, Nishanth, Pavan Kumar and Snehil. 

The police said that the consultancy firm, established by the accused, was getting details about the aspirants of BDS, MBBS and engineering from various coaching centers of the city as well of the other major metro cities of India. 

Giving details of the modus operandi of the culprits, Sandeep Patil, joint commissioner of crime said that the gang members used to call up the students and their parents, once they got the details from the coaching centers and lured them with offer of getting admission into any medical or engineering colleges of the choice of the student and their parents in return for a nominal charge. 

The parents had coughed up Rs one lac each for this alleged promise of the gang. However, after making the payment, when the parents started calling up Merit Wise Consultancy, they started to dodge them and postponed the dates saying that it will take a long time as they are first trying to get seats for students under the management quota. 

Joint commissioner of police crime Sandeep Patil said, "The culprits used to keep on pushing the dates by giving lame excuses. We got the tip off from a student and his parents who had paid Rs one lac to the goons. Immediately our team raided the office of the consultancy firm and found a demand draft for Rs one lac that was written in the name of a private medical college, Rs 1.8 lac in cash, a car and 11 mobile phones." 

According to the joint commissioner, many such fictitious firms have come up in the city to make some quick bucks. Sandeep Patil said that they are yet to assess the amount of money these people have amassed from the gullible students and their parents. The cops are hoping that more people come out and file complaints so that they can catch other gangs in the city who function in the similar manner also. 

The management angle of the private medical colleges is also being explored by the police. The investigators have said that the accused have confessed involvement of managements of some private medical colleges of the city. However, the cops are saying that they have to check the veracity of their statements. 

The arrested accused persons were produced before the magistrate on Monday, September 16. The cops will seek police custody for them in order to grill more so that the entire truth comes out. 

A case under section 420, 405 and 34 of IPC stands registered against the arrested people.