Two held in New Delhi for cheating in name of UNESCO

The Delhi Police's economic offences wing (EOW) has arrested an alleged conman for cheating several companies and individuals of crores of rupees by pretending to be associated with the UNESCO and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, police said on Monday.

The Delhi Police's economic offences wing (EOW) has arrested an alleged conman for cheating several companies and individuals of crores of rupees by pretending to be associated with the UNESCO and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, police said on Monday.

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The police also arrested a female aide of the conman.

Shubhendu Sorcar, a resident of Guwahati, and his associate Debashree Chatterjee were arrested on Sunday from a hotel in Jaipur. They had allegedly cheated a number of people on the pretext of providing them government tenders and contracts for organising cultural events and tool crores of rupees as kickbacks.

Sorcar allegedly organised cultural events in major cities and invited politicians, film stars and popular singers in order to impress his targets. Interestingly, he even cheated the event organisers and never paid them, police said.

The EOW had received a number of complaints about Sorcar running an organization by the name of National Educational Research and Development (NERDP) that claimed to be associated with international organizations.

"He used to project that NERDP was an organisation supported by UNESCO and recognized by the ministry for carrying out activities related to higher education in India," said joint commissioner of police (EOW) Praveer Ranjan.

During investigation, it was learnt that Sorcar, ran a big office in Hauz Khas.

"A complaint filed by the HRD ministry said he had taken Rs 80 crore as earnest money for a contract worth Rs 4,500 crore for the construction of educational hubs in major metropolitan cities across India," said Ranjan.

Sorcar had also taken close to Rs 2 crore to organise an event.