JHARSUGUDA:Jharsuguda policeon Sunday busted a fake BEd admission racket and arrested two persons for allegedly duping students by promising admissions in colleges in Andhra Pradesh. The accused have been identified as Chittaranjan Barik and his associate Reema Barik, both from Sambalpur.
The accused reportedly targeted aspirants by claiming they could secure seats in institutions such as Seven Hills BEd College and Ramalakshmi College of Education in Guntur district of the neighbouring state through informal arrangements and collected Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per candidate.
Investigation revealed that the racket was being operated under the banner of ‘One World Academy’. It was jointly established a few years ago by Barik along with two other persons Alok Kumar Patra and Sangram Kesari with the stated objective of facilitating admissions to BEd colleges outside Odisha. However, after the other two members became inactive, Barik allegedly orchestrated the scam on his own, duping aspiring students by falsely promising admission to Seven Hills BEd College for non-existent distance mode course.
Jharsuguda SP GR Raghavendra said Barik collected money from several students but neither secured admissions nor refunded the amount. To deliberately deceive the victims, he allegedly created forged documents to show that their admissions had been processed.
With the first-semester examinations at the Seven Hills college scheduled to commence from Monday, Barik failed to provide students with any prior information or documents required to appear for them. This raised suspicion, prompting a woman to lodge a complaint, leading to his arrest.
The SP said, “BEd is a regular programme governed strictly by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and university norms. There is no provision for distance-mode BEd courses. Students and parents must verify the recognition and affiliation of institutes with NCTE and the universities concerned before taking admission or making any payment. Strict action will be taken against all those involved in such fraudulent activities.”
While, police have so far arrested Barik and Das in connection with the case, further investigation is underway to identify more victims and uncover the full network behind the racket. “The number of victims could go beyond hundred. Our investigation is in progress to trace out all the victims, “ he said.
Police also clarified that, so far, no involvement of the other two partners has been found in the racket.