A man who ran a legal consultancy firm out of Barakhamba Road has been arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly cheating multiple MBBS aspirants over the last several years with the promise of providing them a seat at a college of their choice, said police. Rajeev Kumar, 39, who was arrested Tuesday, had been absconding for four years during which he continued cheating several students, police added. Police said Kumar would target students who either failed the entrance tests or didn’t get a high score. He had allegedly hired people who worked with different coaching centres to provide him with data of the students he could target. Last year, a student, Atoki, who goes by one name, alleged that he was cheated of Rs 25 lakh by the accused who assured his family that he would help their son secure admission to a prestigious medical school in Delhi or a foreign university, said police. “The family was told their son would get admission abroad. The family met Kumar and his associate Siddiqui Akbar.The family was later compelled to give Rs 25 lakh to secure a seat. They later found they had been cheated when they couldn’t contact the accused,” said an officer. While probing the case, police found several other previous complaints of a similar nature. In 2015, a student alleged that Kumar offered him a seat in a medical college in Maharashtra. “The accused. took Rs 2.5 lakh as 'facilitation fee'.We found there are other victims as well. All their complaints were clubbed and an FIR was lodged in 2019,” said the officer. Another student was allegedly cheated by Kumar and Akbar of Rs 6.75 lakh last year. Pranav Tayal, DCP, New Delhi, said, “A court declared him a proclaimed offender on October 6 this year. He was wanted in several cases at Barakhamba Road police station but was on the run. A team was formed to catch him. We learnt that he was either in Bengaluru or Mumbai.” Police later found Kumar was in Greater Noida and arrested him from his house in Gaur City-II. Police said Kumar opened a legal firm in 2011 but soon got into the business of cheating aspirants.
