SALEM: The owner of a private educational centre in Salem was arrested for allegedly collecting the original Class 12 certificates of a student by promising admission to a private engineering college and failing to return the documents. Police are investigating whether more students from Salem and other districts have been similarly affected. The case was registered at the Pallapatti police station based on a complaint lodged by Salem Chief Educational Officer (CEO) A Ellappan.
Officials said the action followed a complaint received on Tuesday from a student through the 'Kalloori Kanavu' Education Control Room, set up at the Salem collectorate on the instructions of District Collector K Ilambagavath to address admission-related grievances.
According to the student's complaint, the private educational centre had contacted the student claiming it could secure seats in a private engineering college through counselling process. It allegedly collected application fees from parents and later demanded additional payments during counselling. The centre also collected the students' original Class 12 certificates, stating they were required to complete the admission process. Sources said the parents had paid around Rs 20,000.
However, after collecting the money and certificates, the centre allegedly failed to provide any update on the promised admissions and did not return the original documents despite repeated requests.
Acting on the complaint, the CEO inspected the premises of the centre and questioned those in charge about the certificates. They reportedly informed officials that the original documents had been sent to Tiruchy and that efforts are on to retrieve them.
Following the inquiry, police arrested the owner, T Vijayakumar (46). Officials also found contact numbers of several students from different districts at the centre during the inspection. Police are now investigating whether more students were similarly affected and whether additional complaints are likely to emerge. Further investigation is under way.