3 Arrested For Duping Medical Aspirants of Rs 80 Lakh In Odisha’s Balangir

Balangir: Police have arrested three persons for allegedly duping medical aspirants to the tune of over Rs 80 lakh in Odisha’s Balangir district.

Speaking to media persons on Saturday, Balangir SP Rishikesh Khilari said the three persons are members of an eight-member group which was running the racket. The arrested persons are Byasadeba Mohanty and Manas Parida from Nayagarh and Abinash Purohit from Phulbani.

The police arrested the three persons on Friday following investigation into a complaint filed by Brundaban Meher who was duped of Rs 16 lakh by them. The rest five are absconding and a manhunt has been launched to trace them.

The SP said the racketeers used to target the students who did not secure good ranks in the NEET. They collected detailed information about the students. They introduced themselves as officials of Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) and promised them seats in government medical colleges.

“The accused were operating from a fake office named ‘Kalinga Academy’ at Ruchika market in Baramunda of Bhubaneswar. During counselling of the medical candidates that starts from September, the accused used to contact the parents and assured them of providing their children seats in various government medical colleges in Balangir, Koraput and Baripada,” the SP said.

Meher, belonging to Padampur in Bargarh district, had mentioned in his complaint that his daughter had not secured good rank in NEET and had gone to take admission in a private medical college in Bhubaneswar. The racketeers approached Meher and assured him of facilitating his daughter’s admission in Bhima Bhoi Medical College and Hospital in Balangir for Rs 16 lakh.

The trio asked Meher to fill up forms and submit required documents. Then they sent forged admission confirmation letters via mail by creating fake domain of the medical college. After receiving confirmation mails, Meher deposited money in the bank accounts of the accused.

Bur when he went to the medical college for admission, the college authorities told them that the confirmation mails and other documents were fake. Realising that he was duped, Meher filed a complaint at Cyber police station in Balangir.

The SP said the gang had collected over Rs 80 lakh from different people but police seized Rs 16 lakh from the three arrested persons.