With 16 complaints so far, school admission scam pegged at Rs. 3 cr

A school dropout arrested for duping scores of parents on the pretext of ‘arranging’ their child’s admission at ‘reputed’ institutions in the Capital is turning out to be a bigger fish than the police had imagined.

A school dropout arrested for duping scores of parents on the pretext of ‘arranging’ their child’s admission at ‘reputed’ institutions in the Capital is turning out to be a bigger fish than the police had imagined.

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More than 16 complainants, claiming to have been cheated similarly, have surfaced just two days after Manoj Arora was apprehended from Kirti Nagar, following investigations into a complaint this Monday.

“The sheer volume of complaints that have emerged now put the estimate of the amount that Arora seems to have cheated to be of R3 crore,” said a senior police officer. “Most of them, including businessmen, hotel operators and affluent professionals, are asking a single question: How to get their money back,” the officer said.

Arora, according to the police, had moved to Delhi from Kolkata in 1967 before joining an NGO as its treasurer. It was just three years ago that the Class 8 dropout had begun dropping names of the said NGO’s patrons, some of whom happen to be politicians, to cheat people on the pretext of getting their wards admitted in reputed schools all across the city.

The police claimed Arora used to extend ‘assistance’ and charged different amounts for getting students admitted in reputed schools in RK Puram, Vasant Vihar, Barakhamba Road, Dhaula Kuan and Chanakyapuri, among others.

“With payments starting at R3 lakh and extending to R29 lakh, depending on the school a parent wanted the child to get admitted to, three years was all he needed to get his hands on more than three luxury vehicles, including a BMW, and a posh house,” the officer said.

Despite the whopping amount cheated, however, the case is likely to remain with the local police instead of being transferred to EoW for investigation.