Bankers, CAs under police scanner

Panchkula, July 21

Nine bankers and two chartered accountants (CAs) of Panchkula and Chandigarh are under the scanner of the police for their complicity in the multi-crore MBBS admission fraud. A few days ago, the Panchkula police had arrested a Maths teacher and his accomplice for duping over 50 MBBS aspirants of over Rs 10 crore. “Banks have opened accounts in the name of the Maharashtra-based institute, which the accused were using to dupe students, ignoring the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. They allowed massive cash withdrawals and did not flag them despite obvious fraudulent business practice,” said Commissioner of Police OP Singh Regarding the role of CAs, he said, “They were aware of the fact that these con men had nothing to do with the institute still they issued them bona fide certificates.” According to the police, both the accused are habitual offenders and were incarcerated in Gurgaon in 2013 for a similar fraud. “On getting out of jail, they again started conning 50 MBBS aspirants,” OP Singh said. The accused, Sumit Garg and Pankaj Garg, were operating from an office in Swastik Vihar, said the police. Sumit Garg, who used to take maths tuition classes, somehow managed to get the phone numbers of candidates who wished to take admission in the MBBS course at a Maharashtra-based institute. Garg would send an SMS for ‘easy admission’ and lured their parents. He would take anything from Rs 17 lakh to Rs 25 lakh or even Rs 50 lakh for an ‘admission’ under the management quota. Om Prakash of Gurgaon, who paid Rs 17 lakh for his daughter’s admission, had got a case registered against the duo at the Mansa Devi Complex police station.