Three persons were arrested in Gujarat for allegedly cheating people in the state by promising them admission in educational institutions offering BEd degree, a senior police officer said today.
Shantanu Sarkar (42), Ashish Chowdhury (37) and Atanu Mondal (33) were arrested from a hotel in Gujarat's Gandhinagar area today by Kolkata Police sleuths for allegedly running centres promising admission for BEd degree at various educational institutions in and outside the state, the Kolkata Police officer said.
Acting on a complaint lodged at the Muchipara Police Station by one of Mita Dey last month that she was cheated of Rs 70,000 by Merit Educational Institute Pvt Ltd, the police started a probe and found that in total 42 people have been duped, he said.
During investigation, around six from the city lodged complaints of cheating and it was found more than 100 people in West Bengal were cheated by the culprits, the officer said.
"Over 40 people from the city have been cheated by these people... And they have cheated of over Rs seven crore across the entire state," the officer said adding the arrested trio used to target aspirants from Nadia, Bankura, Birbhum and Malda districts of the state.
Two offices of the centre located at the Sealdah area in the city were raided as a part of the investigation, he said.
"One office was found locked, while some vital papers regarding their mode of operation was recovered from another office on the Mahatma Gandhi Road," the officer said.
He said the Kolkata Police sleuths were bringing the trio back to the city on transit remand.
In fact, during their arrest in Gujarat, Kolkata Police sleuths have seized educational certificates of other state boards from the arrested trio, he added.
