Twenty-three Malaysian students have been allegedly duped of crores of rupees by agents, on the pretext of securing them admissions in Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in the State.
The students who had paid their full fees in advance, on arrival found that there were no records of their admission and that their acceptance letters and the letterheads were fake.
According to MAHE, the signatory of the acceptance letter, who claimed to be the ‘registrar of admissions’, did not exist. The institute also said that it had not appointed any agent in Malaysia to offer admissions to students.
Realising that they had been duped, the parents, who together had allegedly paid the agents more than three crore rupees, lodged a police complaint on Monday.
Among them was M Parumal, 60, whose 21-year-old son was among those who had come to India in September to get enrolled at MAHE.
Parumal said at a press conference that the parents had lost all the money they had saved for their children’s education. Most had paid the agents between Rs 500,000 and Rs 2,000,000.
The agents have alleged that they were victims too. They claimed that they were only sub-agents and alleged that the main culprit was a textile businessman from Ipoh, Malaysia.