Medical admission cons thriving in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Days after the Hyderabad police busted a Bihar based gang which duped PG medical seat aspirants from the city, cops have found that new gangs have started their operations here to con MBBS aspirants hailing from other states.

In a span of one week, two incidents were reported from Madhapur of students belonging to Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh being cheated by educational consultancies which took Rs 29 lakh and Rs 16 lakh from them. Police suspects that gangs from other states have started their operations in the city, as fake consultancies run from Bihar and Delhi were busted and many others are under police vigil.

The fraudsters, who have secured the database of students who qualified in Neet, contacted the parents of the students and offered assistance to get admission into medical colleges. On August 31, Mr Ram Baboo Bhargava, a railway employee working in Thakur village near  Mumbai, complained to the police about losing Rs 29 lakh to fake consultants. In the first week of July, Mr Bhargava’s wife received a text message asking her to email her son’s educational details to an employee of Eemerge Brain Strom India Pvt Ltd', to get assistance in securing an MBBS seat at a Bengaluru college. A week after responding, the couple was asked to visit the office at Madhapur along with their son.

Once there, the firm signed an agreement with the Bhargavas to provide a medical seat, and collected Rs 9 lakh. Three weeks later, the firm asked Mr Bhargava to send Rs 5 lakh, and another Rs 15 lakh after a week. Mr Bhargava and his family visited the city again as directed by the consultants to attend counselling at a private college, which they found to be a fraud.

A week before this, a complaint was received from a Bhopal-based businessman, who had deposited Rs 16.25 lakh to get an MBBS admission for his cousin in the city. The fraudsters claiming to be the employee of 'Sak Sham Enlightment and Services' at Madhapur made phone calls to the victim’s uncle offering assistance in getting the admission.

The student’s family was asked to visit the city to complete the process and made to pay Rs 5.75 lakh. 

They were taken to Bengaluru where the gang collected Rs 4 lakh through electronic transfer and Rs 6.5 lakh in cash. Days after that, the mobile phones used by the consultants became unreachable and the family found that the admission process was a scam.

“The crooks have two branches at Hyderabad and Pune to cheat the gullible. The victim hailing from Mumbai came to the city to get admission for his son but got duped. We are verifying if new gangs have set up their operations in the city as many such fake consultancies run in northern Indian states were busted. Efforts are on to nab the fraudsters based on the technical details,” said Madhapur inspector R. Kalinga Rao.