Rourkela: Police Saturday arrested three inter-state fraudsters on the charge of duping lakhs of rupees from medical education aspirants on the pretext of getting them admitted in government-owned medical colleges in the country.
The accused Sekhar Goswami of Malgodown in Uditnagar, Karan Sharma and Rahul Pandey were part of a six-member inter-state gang, DSP PK Mishra said at a press conference at Sector-19 police station. Three other members of the gang are absconding, he added.
A sum of Rs 10 lakh, 10 bank passbooks, fake voter identity cards, driving license, electric bills and several incriminating documents were seized from their possession.
It was learnt from their passbooks that the accused have cleverly managed to defraud several youths of Rs 30 lakh in a few months by promising them admission in government medical colleges. A special police team has left for Bihar and Rajasthan to arrest the absconding members of the gang.
Sekhar along with Rahul Pandey of Balia in Uttar Pradesh, and three others formed a gang with a plan to cheat gullible medical course aspirants. Under various fake identities of Dr Saroj Mohanty, Dr Ramesh Sharma and Dr Karan Raju Singh, Sekhar obtained fake voter identity cards, driving licenses, electricity bills and opened 10 savings bank accounts in private and public sector banks in the city.
He also opened accounts in the name of other persons but operated them by keeping the ATM cards in his possession. He also used to pay Rs 3,000 to 5,000 to each accountholder per month.
The modus operandi of the gang was to collect the names of candidates who were rejected by government medical colleges in Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh from their websites and subsequently conduct camps in five star hotels.
During their stay in these hotels they would send messages to the rejected candidates assuring them admission in government medical colleges by September 29 and would demand Rs 3 lakh each from them as advance.
They would ask the candidates to deposit the money in the accounts opened in the name of Mohanty, Sharma and Singh. Once deposited, they would withdraw the money from and splurge on them.
IIC Rashmita Patel was also present at the press meet. PNN
