Man held for duping students

He promised them an easy route to higher studies, but left them duped of lakhs of rupees.

He promised them an easy route to higher studies, but left them duped of lakhs of rupees.

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But last week, Delhi Police's crime branch arrested the man, Shashi Shekhar Sharma, for cheating 30 management students in three states of more than R2 crore since 2008.

"Sharma hails from Bihar's Gaya district and was apprehended from south Delhi's Safdarjung Enclave on October 27," said Neeraj Thakur, additional commissioner of police (crime). "He used to offer management aspirants a seat at a popular Gurgaon college at exorbitant rates and then flee with the money."

According to the police, Sharma has nine cases against him in Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur. The 35-year-old MSc graduate in chemistry runs a coaching institute, Wise Path Educational Trust, in Patna and used to take coaching classes before that.

"He would publish advertisements in local newspapers promising admission to various management courses in well-known management institutes throughout the country. This time, it was a seat in the Post Graduate Program in Management being offered at Gurgaon's Management Development Institute (MDI)," Thakur said.

The police said the seats promised by Sharma allegedly came under MDI's management quota and were available for R13-15 lakh.

"In one case, Sharma posed as an assistant director of MDI to cheat a Delhi student of

R13 lakh in April this year," said the officer. "To convince the victim, Sharma even produced a visiting card bearing his name and the name of the institute.

He even met the victim outside Bihar Bhawan to convince the victim of his clout."

The police said Sharma took R13 lakh in cash and bank drafts against a fake fee receipt and then provided a fake admission letter to the said victim. "He deposited the bank drafts and money in his bank accounts, which have all been linked with the crime. Three of his accounts — at Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank and Standard Chartered — have been frozen," Thakur added.