Two techies held for cheating woman of Rs 81 lakh

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Two members of a gang of four software engineers, who posed as doctors and maintained a hospital in New Delhi even while operating a medical seat racket, have been arrested for cheating a woman here of Rs 81 lakh, police said today.

Santhosh Kumar Rai (43) and Manoj Kumar Pathak (49) were arrested in Delhi and brought here on a complaint from the woman, they said, adding that the other two were at large. The arrested duo along with their associates allegedly cheated several people by promising them medical seats in various universities across the country and abroad, the police said in a press release.

During investigations, it came to the fore that at least 16 cases were already registered against the accused in Karnataka, Delhi and Mumbai, the release said. The accused had also posed as doctors with fake certificates and maintained a hospital in New Delhi, it added. The four formed a group and hatched a plan to earn easy money by luring people under the pretext of the medical PG admission under central quota and sent bulk messages. The gang would introduce themselves as doctors to those who responded to their messages and as part of admission process sent them fake application forms.

After initial payment, the gang sent forged e-mails to victims claiming the messages were from the ministry of health and family welfare and that their seats were confirmed. Then, the accused used to collect amounts from the victims under the pretext of payment towards tuition fees, the release said.

Adopting similar modus operandi, the accused allegedly cheated a Hyderabad-based woman of Rs 81 lakhs after collecting the amounts in instalments on different occasions and she lodged a complaint with Cyber Crime police after the accused stopped responding to her calls.

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