CCB cops arrest man who cheated medical, engineering aspirants

A 48-year-old man has been arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police for cheating medical and engineering aspirants.

The man, identified as Sailesh Kothari alias Gauresh Kumar Daga, placed newspaper advertisements, took money from students with the promise of getting them seats in reputed medical and engineering colleges and cheated them.  

Bubosh Bharati (38) from Madurai filed a complaint against the accused with the Srirampura police, based on which the CCB sleuths nabbed Daga on Tuesday morning, having received information that he was in Bengaluru. They seized Rs 2 lakh in cash and gold jewellery worth Rs 10 lakh.

Having seen an advertisement for admissions to MBA, PGDM, MBBS, BTech and other courses, Bharati called the number mentioned in the ad — 9108829012.

Daga introduced himself as Sailesh Kothari and assured Bharati admission to a private engineering college in Chennai. He met the aspirant at the house of Bharati’s relative in Srirampura in October. The duo had finalised the deal for Rs 2 lakh. Bharati advanced him Rs 10,000.

Bharati transferred Rs 1.6 lakh to Daga’s bank and said he would pay the remaining Rs 30,000 once he received a confirmation call from the college. But Daga did not get him the admission as promised, prompting Bharati to file a complaint on Monday.

Bharati told DH that he had done his diploma in engineering and has been working with a private firm. “I need a BE certificate to get a promotion. So, I contacted Daga when I saw the ad,” he said. “He sent me an Aadhaar card and PAN card to make the online transaction. I believed that he was a resident of Bengaluru on seeing those documents,” Bharati added.

An investigating officer said Daga lives in a rented house in Kolkata. He is divorced, unemployed and had been living lavishly by cheating unsuspecting people for the past three years.

Daga posted ads in newspapers across the country to lure aspirants and disappeared with their money after assuring them medical and engineering seats. “He confessed to have cheated seven people, though we suspect that the number of victims are far more,” the official said.

He stayed in hotels while meeting aspirants in other states and has a passport in the name of Gauresh Kumar Daga. He opened accounts in at least seven banks in and around Vasanth Nagar, besides having an Aadhaar card in two addresses. Further investigations are on, the official added.