Kingpin of medical admission racket held

Kolkata: In a major breakthrough, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested the prime accused of an inter-state racket which actively duped students after taking lakhs of rupees from them to assist with admissions in medical colleges.

A senior CID officer said that the accused, Vishnu Prasad Chaubey alias KN Jha, was arrested from near his residence in Gorakhpur near Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, late on Thursday night.

Acting on a tip off, a team comprising of senior CID officers went to Jabalpur and arrested the accused who had managed to spread his tentacles across several states, duping several students after assuring admission through quota seats at medical colleges in Kolkata, Bengaluru, Katihar and Siliguri. The police had earlier arrested Sumantra Gupta, a resident of Siliguri and close associate of Vishnu, in this connection.

It may be recalled that a complaint was lodged at Siliguri police station on November 22, 2015, against the miscreants who had been rampantly duping students against lakhs of money. The case was initiated based on a complaint from a student from Andaman who had cleared class-XII level board examinations in 2012.

The CID later took up the case and initiated a probe in this connection. The investigating police officers came to know that the 41-year-old Vishnu and Sumantra had allegedly taken Rs 15-20 lakh from each student who had approached them for help, aspiring to receive admission in medical colleges. Complaints were being lodged against them on charges of taking money from a medical aspirant in Guwahati who had given around Rs 17 lakh.

Sumantra, against whom there are 20 cases in different parts of the country, had been running the racket along with Vishnu for the past 10 years. He has been alleged of using his father's deep connection in different medical colleges, sources said. Vishnu was running the show after the arrest of Sumantra and had been posing himself as admission co-coordinator of Katihar Medical College in Bihar.

There was also an allegation of Sumantra's involvement in child trafficking case and a probe in this connection is also being conducted following a complaint lodged with Kurseong police station. A CID officer said that Vishu will be brought to Bengal in transit remand after appearing before Jabalpur Court and then he will finally be taken to Siliguri.