The Delhi Police has arrested a doctor from Kolkata for allegedly duping a Delhi-based man of lakhs on the pretext of getting his son admitted in a medical college.
The accused has been identified as Naveen Kumar (39), a native of Haryana’s Narnaul. Police said that he was arrested from his rented accommodation at Salt Lake in Kolkata after the police managed to trace his location using technical surveillance.
According to Urvija Goel, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), west district, a complaint was lodged by the victim, also a doctor, against Kumar at the Rajouri Garden police station in 2020.
“The complainant alleged that in 2015, he got a message from an unknown mobile number regarding admission in medical PG courses. When he called that number, the caller introduced himself as Dr Naveen Kumar, an ex-official of the Health Ministry who assured the victim that he can get his son admitted in a medical college through management quota as he had contacts in the universities,” said the DCP.
“The accused assured admission for his son in Diploma in Radio Medical Diagnosis (DMRD) at D Y Patil Medical College in Pune for a cost of `1.5 crores. After several telephonic discussions, the victim made an advance payment of `24 lakhs. But when Kumar could not secure admission, the victim urged him to return his money,” said the DCP. “The accused returned only `7.92 lakhs and then stopped responding to calls and switched off his mobile phone. The victim had neither met the accused nor had any of his photo. The accused had also changed his cell phone number,” said the DCP.
“Police team collected the address of the beneficiary bank accounts in which the cheated amount of Rs 24 lakhs were transferred. The police visited the addresses mentioned in the bank account of the accused but could not find him,” said the DCP.
“Using technical surveillance, our team managed to identify the current mobile number of the accused which was found to be active in Salt Lake area. A team was sent there and since it was a flood affected area, they stationed themselves there for three days. When the situation became normal on August 5, our team arrested the accused from his rented accommodation and was brought to Delhi on transit remand,” said the DCP.
“After completing his MBBS from Rohtak, Kumar went to Mumbai to pursue his MD where he came in contact with some people who provided admission in medical colleges through management quota. So, he left his studies and joined them. In 2015, he shifted to Kolkata where he started running a Laboratory Collection Centre in the name of Apollo Diagnostics Centre,” said the DCP.