BENGALURU: JP Nagar police on Sunday arrested a 35-year-old West Bengal-based man who claimed to be the vice-chancellor of a medical university he would soon start and allegedly duped educational institutions and students, promising them affiliation and medical seats.
Santosh Lohar, a resident of Tirumla Garden Apartment in MLA Layout, Bannerghatta Road, cheated over 44 educational institutions across the country, including 19 in Karnataka, police said. He cheated people of around Rs 2.3 crore, police estimated.
In May this year, West Bengal police had arrested Lohar's associate and prime accused Shyamlal Dutta on similar charges.
DCP (south) SD Sharanappa said Lohar and Datta claimed they had got approval from the central government to run paramedical and nursing colleges across the country. "They forged documents replicating approval letters from the central government and related departments," police said.
Lohar and Datta approached many educational institutions, asking them to start medical and nursing courses and promised to get them recognition.
Meanwhile, West Bengal police had received tip-offs about their activities and alerted central agencies. "An English daily in Kolkata had published an advertisement in April this year, saying no permission to open new paramedical and nursing colleges has been granted," police said.
"One Bengaluru victim, who saw the advertisement, approached Santosh for an explanation. Santosh brushed away the allegations. Sensing fraud, the victim approached Bengaluru police," senior police officials said. Police picked up Lohar from his residence.
Police also seized from him a sedan car with a red beacon light on top and an Ashoka Chakra emblem in front. "RTO officials had seized his car two weeks ago. But Santosh managed to hoodwink them saying he is a VC and has direct links with the central government," they added.
Retired IAS officer was adviser
Investigations revealed that Santosh had employed a retired bureaucrat as his personal adviser.
"The former IAS officer, who retired as deputy commissioner of a district neighbouring Bengaluru city recently, grew suspicious about Santosh's behaviour and resigned from the post of advisor a couple of months ago. We don't see his role in the case," police added.