BENGALURU: The medical colleges being in the radar of the IT department has only scraped the surface of the scam. According to the city police department records, at least seven medical seat aspirants were cheated of around Rs 1 crore in just three months - till March - in Bengaluru. Last year, medical seat aspirants from throughout the state were cheated in Bengaluru of at least Rs 6 crore.
A source from the police department said, “Parents of the aspirants were offered seats and they made the payment upfront. Only later did they realise that they had been cheated of several lakhs.”
While the police have collated the number of cases this year only till March, statistics from the past two years don’t paint a pretty picture either. In 2018, there were 25 reported cases of medical seat fraud where aspirants were cheated of Rs 6.41 crore. In 2017, 34 aspirants were cheated of Rs 9.27 crore. However, there was only one reported case of an engineering aspirant being cheated of Rs 2.5 lakh in 2017.
A parent of an engineering aspirant told TNSE that soon after registering his child for the entrance exam, both he and his wife started to get text messages about seats up for sale in prestigious colleges in Bengaluru. One of the brokers also offered a medical seat abroad.