BENGALURU:A gang running a medical seat racket was busted on Saturday, with the PRO of a college ending up behind bars.
The racket was active at Ambedkar Medical College, police said, naming its chairman M K Kempa Siddaiah and his son Shivakumar also in the case.
The arrested Public Relations Officer is A Amanulla.
The Central Crime Branch recovered Rs 58 lakh from the four arrested. Kempa Siddaiah and Shivakumar also faced an interrogation, but escaped arrest by taking anticipatory bail.
Those in custody are Sriharsha, Shivaraju, Syed Ayub Ali, Amanullah, and his relative Abdul Rehman.
Seat Aspirant’s Parent Filed Plaint
Hemaraju, father of a seat aspirant, had filed a complaint with the DJ Halli police, following which Vijayanagar police arrested Sriharsha, Shivaraju
and Ali. R Ramesh, DCP (Crime) told Express the arrested gang had revealed how Amanullah and Rehman had allegedly taken Rs 10 lakh from Hemaraju, promising a medical seat for his son Siddarth in 2014.
The gang, led by Siddaiah and Shivakumar, had demanded more money, and allegedly extracted Rs 58 lakh from Hemaraju.
When they failed to allot Siddharth a seat, Hemaraju had approached the police.
Police said the gang had conned many seat aspirants and their parents.
When Express called, Kempa Siddaiah admitted the police had questioned him. “I don’t want to say anything more about it,” he said.
Graft at the Top
Prime accused Sriharsha was close to college chairman Kempa Siddaiah and allegedly negotiated with parents of seat aspirants.The chairman allegedly encouraged PRO Amanulla and Rehman to contact seat aspirants. They would in turn collect the money and hand it over to him, police said.