BENGALURU: A Chennai-based businessman was duped by a fake university operating from Bengaluru. The president of Aris Global College lost lakhs of rupees he had paid to the ‘university’ to get affiliation to start medical colleges. He had also taken a loan of over Rs 2 crore to build the colleges.
This was revealed by the JP Nagar police in their objection filed to the anticipatory bail pleas filed by the three accused. Police said one of the accused, Santosh Lohar, had used the Central Government symbol to issue appointment orders to the fake university’s employees and also on the name-plate on his car, which was seized by the investigating officer.
The three accused, who had filed anticipatory bail pleas before the City Civil and Sessions Court, are Mahesh aka Seetha Mahesh (26) from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, Boaz Babu Nelli (31) from BTM Layout and G S Shivakumar (27) from Tilak Nagar in the city. All three accused hold MBA degrees and are employees of the Bio-Chemic Educational Grant Commission, which is not recognised by the Government of India.
They conspired with the other accused, including Lohar, and forged the documents and cheated the complainant Arivalagan. Judge Yadav Vanamala Anandrao dismissed the pleas of all three accused recently. According to objections filed by the public prosecutor, the accused made Arivalagan believe that the institutions were real and he could proceed with construction work investing huge amounts of money.
How the scam unfolded
Arivalagan got an e-mail from Shivakumar, the second accused, introducing himself as the officer of University of Bio-Chemic Health Science, AP. Believing his credentials, Arivalagan applied for the opening of medical colleges. The first accused Mahesh introduced Arivalagan to the seventh accused Lohar. Lohar asked Arivalagan to deposit an affiliation fee of Rs 1.07 crore and process charges of Rs 10.50 lakh for construction of three medical colleges, three Bio Chemical Nursing and three para medical health science colleges, to the account of the accused with a bank in Sanjaynagar. Arivalagan deposited Rs 38.40 lakh through RTGS and Rs 40 lakh by demand draft to the Global Health Mission.
The accused then visited Attapadi in Kerala, Vadalur in Tamil Nadu and Chittor in Andhra Pradesh and subsequently provisional permission was accorded. The complainant raised a loan of Rs 2.45 crore and started construction on April 20.
He later came to know that both Bio-Chemic Educational Grant Commission and University of Bio-Chemic Health Service were not recognised institutions. After realising that he had been cheated, Arivalagan came to Bengaluru on May 7 and found that the office of the institution was closed and all accused were absconding.