IELTS case: Three remanded in 3-day custody

The scam came to light when the four candidates Mehsana —Neil Patel, Dhruv Patel, Urvesh Patel and Swanendra Patel—and two others were caught illegally crossing the freezing St Regis river from Canada into the US on April 28 when their boat began sinking and were rescued by the American police.

Menon and Fernandes were the proxy writers in the IELTS exam which took place in Navsari on September 25, 2021, and Sunny Patel was the invigilator from the Planet EDU Ahmedabad.

As per the FIR in which 45 persons have been booked, ” The answers for listening, reading and writing tasks in the IELTS exam held in Navsari on September 25, 2021 ,for Urvesh, Neil and Sawan, were written by Amit Chaudhary, one of the accused. And for Dhruv, answers were written by Juhi Pandya, also one of the accused.”

“We are also now investigating the other two who are from Gandhinagar and Patan,” said B H Rathod, Police Inspector Special Operatons Group (SOG) Mehsana.

“Amit Chaudhary is the link between all the groups and the students who were involved in the scam. There are two main groups who were the proxy writers. One is the group of Gokul Menon, who takes classes for IELTS in Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad. He alongwith his colleagues, who also teach in the same academy, were involved in this scam. The other group is of Pooja Sharma, who also has a team, and was involved in the scam,” said Rathod.

“Renu Suri, is from IDP Education, and was the one present when Amit Chaudhary and Sawant Fernandes were giving tests for the original candidates, Urvesh, Dhruv, Neil and Sawant,” said Rathod.

“They will remain in the police custody at B-division police station at Mehsana,” said the Investigating Officer, Nilesh Ghetiya.

As per the FIR, the speaking test for these candidates was taken after the allotted time of the test, at around 10 pm.

Neil Patel’s test was taken by Sawant Fernandes, and for the other three candidates, it was taken by Amit Chaudhary.

Neil Patel, is a 12th pass in Gujarati medium is from Dhamanva village; Dhruv Patel is 10th pass, and is trained in Electrician trade from ITI, is from Manknaj village; Urvesh Patel is also a 12th pass in Gujarati medium is from Khadalpur, and Sawan is a BA graduate in Gujarati medium from Sanganpur village. Sawan’s father lives in the US, stated the FIR.

As per the FIR, Gokul Menon and Amit Chaudhary first met in 2018, and both used to teach students for IELTS. Gokul, alongwith Chaudhary was also in contact with various Tasks examiners, TDS, Renu Suri and Planet Edu CEO, Sanjeev Sehgal.

“Two rooms were booked in Hotel Fun City in Navasari from September 24 – September 26 in 2021, in which Amit Chaudhary and Narendra Chaudhary, alongwith two girls from Mizoram stayed, while the IELTS exam was held in the same hotel,” stated the FIR.

“Four rooms were in priority booked for the IELTS speaking test in the Supreme hotel, Navsari between September 29-October 1, 2021. In the same hotel, Gokul Menon booked three rooms on September 24, in person, in addition to seven others, and five rooms for ten more people the next day. At hotel Fun City, Navsari, two rooms were booked in priority for Planet EDU staff and Renu Suri, from September 24- October 1, 2021,” stated the FIR.

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“We had an agreement with Planet EDU to conduct the IELTS exam in our hotel, since the end of 2017. In September last year too, the booking was made by Plant EDU. Amit Chaudhary was living with us as a guest, when the IELTS exam was happening,” said Dinesh Tiwari, manager at Hotel Fun City, Navsari.

The job of offering visas and sending these students to Canada was done by Jitendra Patel, from Mehsana, who was visited by these four students in Mehsana.