Thane: Two persons from Chhattisgarh and Bengaluru have been allegedly cheated of Rs 77.61 lakh under the pretext of being provided PG course seats at a medical college in Navi Mumbai under management quota, police said on Sunday. The Nerul police in Navi Mumbai have registered two cases against six persons in this connection, they said.
A 59-year-old man from Raigarh in Chhattisgarh in a police complaint alleged that the six accused promised to get his daughter a postgraduate seat in General Surgery course at a reputed Nerul-based medical college.
Between May 2022 and December 2023, the accused allegedly took Rs 1.27 crore from him. The man later found that all the communication, including the admission confirmation message, joining letter and college documents, were forged, an official from Nerul police station said.
When the complainant enquired about the college admission, the accused returned Rs 85 lakh, but failed to refund the remaining Rs 42 lakh. After multiple failed attempts to recover the balance amount, the victim approached the police, the official said.
“The accused even used a forged college letterhead to issue an admission letter and misled the complainant with fabricated official communications. This clearly indicates a planned conspiracy,” he said.
Police uncovered another similar case, involving three of the six accused persons, as a 54-year-old man from Panathur, Bengaluru, alleged that he was duped of Rs 35.61 lakh after the accused promised admission to his nephew in the same medical college for the MD anesthesia course, the official said.
“In this second case too, the fraud was committed between May 2022 and December 2023. The accused initially took Rs 50 lakh, but refunded only Rs 4.39 lakh, and then stopped responding to the victim’s repeated calls and messages,” the official said.
The Bengaluru-based complainant was also provided fake documents, including a ‘provisional allotment letter’ purportedly from the medical counselling committee, a forged university letter, fee structure, joining letter and receipt, all of which were later found to be forged, he said.
“The documents presented were carefully designed to appear authentic and convince the victims. We are verifying whether more people have fallen prey to the same scam,” the official said.
The police on Friday registered two FIRs — one on the complaint of the Chhattisgarh-based man against six persons and the other on the Bengaluru man’s complaint against three of those same six accused under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465, 467, 468 (forgery), 471 (use of forged documents) and 34 (common intention), the official said.
No arrest has been made so far, he added. “We are investigating the financial trail and also checking with the institution concerned to determine the extent of the forgery,” the official said.
