Seat-blocking scam: Police have no clue who pocketed Rs 51 cr

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) is all set to file charge sheets in the seat-blocking scam involving the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) and some private colleges, but it has not been able to trace people who made away with Rs 51 crore collected from the students in just three academic years at the Dr B R Ambedkar Medical College (AMC). 

While other private colleges charge Rs 50-70 lakh for an MBBS seat under the management quota, the AMC accounts show a mere Rs 4.5 lakh was collected per seat. But investigation into the money’s disappearance couldn’t proceed because bigwigs such as former Union minister Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law
Radhakrishna are involved. 
Radhakrishna was the chairman of Ananda Social and Educational Trust, which runs the AMC. He is now one of the trustees, sources said. 

In fact, the CCB is investigating the AMC case separately, through an FIR (280/2014) registered at the DJ Halli police station. The FIR names Amanullah Khan (Public Relations Officer of AMC) as the main accused and Radhakrishna as the second accused, along with 14 others, including founder trustees and associate trustees. The CCB was assigned the case in August 2014. It is investigating the COMEDK case too. 
668 students dropped out  Between 2011 and 2014, at least 668 students had dropped out after getting through the COMEDK entrance test. Seventy-three of them had opted for the AMC before dropping out. The fees they paid to the COMEDK and the college (Rs 2.60 crore) were refunded to them by cheque. 

The cheques, issued in the names of the dropouts during 2011-2013, were credited to the account of the AMC principal at Corporation Bank in RT Nagar. 

The cheques for the year 2013-14 were credited to the principal’s account at Indian Bank at Hosur, Tamil Nadu. The CCB found that these uncrossed cheques were realised after forging the students’ signatures. 

In 2009-2011, Radhakrishna was the chairman of AMC. V S Kuber and P L Nanjundaswamy were chairmen in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The complaint stated that the chairman and trustees, along with main accused Khan, swindled not only the fees “returned” to the students but also the money collected for management quota seats.  “Investigation in the AMC case was conducted in two phases. First, it was found that the cheques were issued in favour of all the 73 dropouts and credited at a single branch. We have evidence of the misappropriation of this money,” DCP (Crime) Abhishek Goyal told Deccan Herald. 
Not much progress

“But there is not much progress in the second part of the probe about the money collected from the seats allotted under the management quota. We have recorded statements from the AMC which reveal the college allotted management quota seat for just Rs 4.5 lakh.”  College charged Rs 70L per MBBS seat
Trustees of the Dr B R Ambedkar Medical College (AMC) charged at least Rs 70 lakh for each MBBS seat, according to the complaint. 

Thus, they and others collected Rs 18.20 crore in 2011-12 when 26 students dropped out, Rs 13.30 crore in 2011-12 when 19 students dropped out and Rs 19.60 crore in 2013-14 when 28 students dropped out. 
The CCB probe has revealed that the students who got seats under the management quota at the AMC had produced fake KRLM (Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority) rank cards. 
The FIR names Amanullah Khan, Radhakrishna, V S Kuber, P L Nanjundaswamy, S Gurappaji, M K Kempasiddaiah, Mahadeva Prasad, Dr N Kailash, Dr Harimurthy, M K Shivakumar, Stanley Jan, Dr B R Shivakumar, Dr S V Diwakar, T Ramesh, R L Nagaiah and Chidananda Murthy as the accused.