Two arrested for duping MBBS aspirants under pretext of providing admission

Mumbai: The special investigation team (SIT) of the Mumbai crime branch arrested two accused on Wednesday for allegedly duping a MBBS student on the pretext of providing admission through management seat quota in a medical college in Mumbai

Mumbai: The special investigation team (SIT) of the Mumbai crime branch arrested two accused on Wednesday for allegedly duping a MBBS student on the pretext of providing admission through management seat quota in a medical college in Mumbai. Both the accused are software engineers and were earlier arrested by Navi Mumbai in a similar case.

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The SIT was formed by the Mumbai crime branch last month after police found there were a total of seven cases registered in JJ Marg and MRA Marg police stations and the gang had duped many aspirants. All seven cases were transferred to the SIT to probe and police, earlier, arrested a real estate agent, Ganesh Rokhande, who had duped four students worth ₹1.17 crore.

The arrested accused has been identified as Iftikhar Ahmed Mustaq Ahmed alias Abhay Singh alias Gautam, 31, a resident of Noida and Luv Avadhkishore Gupta, 35, a native of Jaipur.

Police said both the accused are software engineers but to earn quick money, they started working as agents for a few years. They accessed the contact list of the students, who cleared NEET and they spoke to them using their fake name and took money by promising them admission in top colleges, said a crime branch officer.

According to the police, the incident took place in December 2022 when Pravin Sasane, 49, a resident of Kalyan stated in his complaint that his son had cleared NEET exam in 2022 and he was trying for his son’s admission in a reputed medical college.

He got a call from one, Anand Kumar, who asked him to send all the documents related to admission on his WhatsApp and called him to meet in St. George hospital on December 23, 2022. The accused demanded ₹15 lakh and took ₹6.5 lakh cash as donation and gave a form claiming it was an admission form. The incident occurred in St. George hospital premises, added official.

The accused later stopped responding to the victim’s call and messages. The victim then approached MRA Marg police and registered a case on December 29, 2022. During investigation, police learnt that Iftikhar Ahmed claimed his name as Anand Kumar and duped the victim. Later, police found the involvement of Gupta in the case. Both the accused were arrested by Nerul police station in Navi Mumbai in a similar case in January this year and were in judicial custody at Taloja jail.

After learning about their involvement in this case, we approached the Taloja jail and took their custody from the prison. Both the accused were produced in the Killa court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody till March 4 for further investigation, added the crime branch officer part of the SIT.