Maha: Conman cheats Govt official of Rs 61 lakh on pretext of securing MBBS seat, held

The 40-year-old accused has been identified as Sudip Syama Chakraborty was tracked down by the airport police and arrested at Vile Parle. He was remanded in police custody by the local court, while two of his associates are still being searched by the police.

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According to a recent HT report, the official's daughter couldn't secure herself a seat in a medical college given her low scores in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exam. In a ploy to obtain the amount, the accused managed to fraudulently convince the official of getting his daughter admitted to a medical college in Pune.

He assured the official of having a strong network within the reputed colleges. In a pretext of getting her admission to the MBBS course, he asked for 30 lakh rupees as a token amount for initiating her admission process.

The accused had collected from the father, as a part of his gambit, a total sum of 61.25 rupees by September. Meanwhile, with no advancements in the admission process, the official developed suspicion.

He then started fetching more details about the man on the internet when he found him associated with a medical seat scam. Consequently, he resorted to the police and filed a complaint.

"The official later searched for the accused's name on the internet and discovered a news article in which a man with the same was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police for duping several students, collectively to the tune of ₹1 crore, by promising them seats in medical colleges. The official then approached the police," the officer told the Hindustan Times.

He added that Chakrabarty is a history-sheeter and there are more than eight cases of cheating registered against him at Goregaon, Oshiwara and Bangur Nagar stations in Mumbai as well as at Kothrud (Pune) and Hanehalli (Karnataka) police stations and the Jammu and Kashmir crime branch.

The police has registered a case under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120 (B) [punishment of criminal conspiracy], and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66 (C) [punishment for identity theft], and 66 (D) [punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource] of Information Technology Act.

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