Two held for duping medical aspirants in Lko, Gzb, other dists

LUCKNOW: After the arrest of two persons, the UP Special Task Force (STF) on Friday claimed to have unearthed a racket involved in duping medical aspirants assuring them admissions in government medical colleges across the state.

In the past four months, the fraudsters had duped 92 medical aspirants of Lucknow, Ghaziabad and other districts of ₹1.24 crore.

Abhishek Singh, SSP, STF said those arrested were identified as Ashish Kumar of Hamirpur and Sudhir Singh of Mahoba. The duo was working in a Ghaziabad firm and staying there with a changed identity to evade arrest, after some aspirants lodged a complaint against them a few months ago.

The two accused revealed that three other persons were also involved in the racket, said Singh.

The SSP said the fraudsters used to make a list of NEET examinees from different coaching institutes and approached them on the pretext of counselling process.

The accused boasted about their links in different medical colleges and assured the aspirants of admission in government medical colleges.

The fraudsters used to charge ₹10 to 35 lakh from the aspirants, as per the paying capacity of the candidates’ families, he added.

He said the arrested accused admitted to cheating at least 92 aspirants from different districts of Uttar Pradesh and other states.

A list of 1,280 medical aspirants was found from the two accused but it was yet to be verified whether these aspirants were also cheated by them.

He said the STF team managed to get some crucial information about three other members of the racket and was trying to trace them.