Senior paramilitary officer duped of Rs 9.2L

The victim had handed over the cash on August 28 after being promised a medical seat for his son

A 51-year-old Assistant Commandant of Paramilitary forces from Siliguri in West Bengal was duped of Rs 9.2 lakh by two conmen who promised his son a medical seat in central Bengaluru by posing as officials from the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).

The victim Sukhendu Mohanta, who handed over the cash on August 28, realised that he had been duped and lodged a complaint with the Cubbon Park police station on August 31.

In his complaint, Mohanta said his son Shubham Mohanta attended the NEET exam recently and was awaiting results. In the first week of August, Mohanta received a phone call from a person claiming to be a KEA official and introduced himself as Subhashith Pati. He informed Mohanta that his son had bagged a medical seat at the Banglore Medical College and asked him to meet him on August 9 for other formalities.

Overwhelmed by the response, Mohanta came to the city and met Pati who asked him to make an initial payment of Rs 20,000 as verification fee.

After the payment, Pati called Mohanta to make a payment of Rs 5 lakh as development fee and also Rs 4 lakh towards the first instalment of the admission fee.

Sukhendu transferred the amount to Pati on August 13 and August 27.

After confirming the receipt of payment, Pati asked him to come to BMC to complete the admission formalities on August 28. When Mohanta went to the college, he realised he was duped.

The police are trying to track down Pati and his associate identified as one Soumay Kant Mohanty from the phone numbers provided by the complainant.