Fake ‘education consultant’ held for duping aspiring students

A 43-year-old 'admission consultant' was arrested for cheating more than two dozen unsuspecting students of crores on the pretext of providing admissions at various Indian universities and abroad, the crime branch said on Friday. HT reports.

A 43-year-old 'admission consultant' was arrested for cheating more than two dozen unsuspecting students of crores on the pretext of providing admissions at various Indian universities and abroad, the crime branch said on Friday.

HT Image

Piyush Bharat Saini, hailing from Roorkee, came to Delhi in 1993 for a diploma course from south Delhi which he could not qualify.

A year later, he began cheating innocent students by charging anywhere from Rs.15 to Rs.45 lakh as 'consultancy' fee for admission to sought-after courses at universities based in India and abroad, said SBS Tyagi, deputy commissioner of police (crime and railways).

He used to operate from his Old Rajender Nagar office, Tyagi added.

“On November 9, Prem Singh Sekhon, a retired professor of the Punjab University from Fatehgarh district filed a complaint stating that Saini, who runs an admission guidance agency for MBBS, MD and other courses, had duped him of Rs.15 lakh on the pretext of getting his grandson admitted in the MBBS course at Pune's Bharatiya Vidyapeeth,” DCP Tyagi said.

On this complaint, police said, inquires were conducted and it came to light that Saini was involved in cheating at least 25 students of at least Rs.3 crore in the last two years using the same modus operandi.

According to police, Saini's typical ruse was ensuring admissions in MBBS, engineering and other higher academic courses at various universities in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Pune and especially those based in Europe, New Zealand and Singapore.

“He was arrested on a tip-off on November 21 and revealed that he had first been arrested in a cheating case at south Delhi's Sarojini Nagar for duping a person of R1.5 lakh against an admission that didn't materialise,” said DCP Tyagi.

Subsequent to his arrest and a two-year jail term, police claimed, Saini started his 'admission guidance centre', in the name of 'Education Wise' at Old Rajender Nagar in August, 2006.

“Saini specifically targeted students from remote areas -- especially from Punjab, by giving advertisements in leading English newspapers,” he added.