Five people have been arrested in connection with an MBBS admissions scam.

Navi Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai police have busted an inter-state gang of scamsters, who conned students with low NEET marks, by promising them admissions into reputed medical colleges.

Neet exam

Six people from Navi Mumbai and other states have fallen victims to this gang, with the scam amounting to ₹3.30 crore. The amount is expected to increase as the investigations progresses, said Milind Bharambe, Navi Mumbai police commissioner, while addressing a press conference on Wednesday.

A group of well-educated men belonging to different states, had come together to form a gang in 2017 with the intention of conning students desperate for medical admissions.

Those arrested have been identified as Saurabh Krishna Upadhyay (39), a resident of Noida from Uttar Pradesh, Iftekhar Ahmad Mustaq Ahmad alias Abhay Singh alias Gautam (31) from Gautam Buddha Nagar (UP), Luv Avadhkishor Gupta (35) from Jaipur, Aakib Naushad Ahmad (28) from Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, and Abhijatya Radhesham Singh (41) from Ghaziabad.

Among the five arrested, Upadhyay is an MBBS graduate, who has a criminal record from 2014 in Uttar Pradesh. “Though a doctor himself, he never got himself registered and hence, has not practiced as a doctor,” said Tanaji Bhagat, senior police inspector, Nerul Police Station.

The other four members of the group are engineers by qualification but have never worked as engineers. While Singh has no previous criminal record, Ahmad and Gupta have criminal cases against their name in UP.

The modus operandi of the gang was to market themselves as an organisation, which is helping students get admission in management quota using the power of social media. “The main target of the gang has been those students who scored low in NEET exam and have slim chances of getting admission through merit.

“Students, who scored poorly in NEET, would contact them through their advertisement and provide their mobile numbers. One of them would then contact the person and promise admission in any reputed medical college. The gang would then fix a price as per the capacity of the person. On January 13 this year, we got a complaint from a Chhattisgarh resident who was conned in Nerul of ₹33.50 lakh,” said Bharambe.

Upadhyay, being from medical background, used to handle the ‘clients’ to convince them that they had enough contacts at the colleges and would help them get admission. In the case registered at Nerul police station, the 50-year-old complainant was seeking admission for her daughter and she had first received a call on March 2022.

The complainant was asked to meet Upadhyay at DY Patil Medical College in Nerul wherein he took them around the college campus and finalised the admission for ₹1 crore for the course. On the first day, the complainant transferred ₹5 lakh to the account number provided. To gain the confidence, the accused used to periodically send letters on the letterhead of the college name stating that the admission was in process.

Till January 2023, the complainant paid ₹33.50 lakh and since they were not providing admission letter, the complainant visited the college with the previously provided letter. The college denied issuing any such admission letter. The complainant then approached the police and registered a complaint following which the police planned a trap for the accused.

The complainant was made to call the accused and tell them that she was ready to pay ₹15 lakh more in cash, but she needed the admission letter immediately. The accused were convinced and decided to meet her near Vashi Railway Station. “The accused came with a forged admission letter on the college letterhead and our team nabbed them,” Police Inspector (crime) Sanjay Chavan from Nerul Police Station said.

The gang has so far misused the names of Sir JJ Medical College, Sion Medical College, Nair Medical College, Alibaug Government Medical College, Dr. DY Patil Medical College, Terna Medical College, MGM Medical College. The investigation showed that they had also committed the crime in the jurisdictions of Sir JJ Marg police station, MRA Marg police station, Alibaug Police station and Bhandara City Police Station. Read more On..