Medical seat racket: Two fraudsters held

NR police have busted a racket of middlemen, who tried to cheat a gold merchant from Andhra Pradesh by promising a seat for his son at JSS Medical College, Bannimantap, in the city. Police have recovered Rs 24.90 lakh in cash, besides a car and several other articles from them.

The accused have been identified as Biten, aged 29 years from Mumbai, and Mansoor Ahmed,26, of Bangalore, according to DCP (law and order) A N Rajanna.

Biten, an habitual offender, had contacted Avinash, the gold merchant in Andhra Pradesh over phone 10 days ago. Avinash wanted to admit his son to JSS Medical College here.
Biten had demanded Rs 22 lakh from Avinash to arrange for the seat. Avinash had promised to pay the amount after coming to the city.

On September 20, Avinash came to the city and paid Rs one lakh in advance. Before settling the amount in full, Avinash wanted to enquire at the college. The fraudsters, who became edgy afer this, contacted Avinash over phone the following day and demanded for the full amount. 

However, Avinash stuck to his words and decided to go to the college at Shivarathreeshwara Nagar in Bannimantap. The accused tried to restrain him from going to the college. Avinash, who got suspicious, went to the college, only to learn from the principal that the admission process was already over. Avinash, who was convinced that he was being cheated, contacted the accused again only to lay the trap for their arrest.

After getting to know about the address of the hotel they were staying in, Avinash took along with him NR police, leading to their arrest the same night (Sept 20).Police recovered cash, besides a car (belonging to Mansoor), ATM cards, passbooks, cellphones, PAN cards, driving licences and also catalogues of various medical colleges.

A police officer  told Deccan Herald, Biten had two driving licences in his possession; obtained from Ranchi and Gujarat. He also had two PAN cards, but one in his original name. Another was in the name of Jain. Biten, who possessed huge cash at the time of inspection, claimed that it was withdrawn from a bank to make a payment.

Mansoor Ahmed turned out to be the man who was accused of similar charges in a case registered at K R Police station two months ago.  The police team  was led by Inspector D Dhananjaya.