Doctor arrested for duping Delhi man from Kolkata
New Delhi: A doctor has been arrested from Kolkata for allegedly duping a Delhi-based man of lakhs on the pretext of getting his son admitted in a medical college, police said on Monday.
Naveen Kumar (39), a native of Haryana’s Narnaul, was arrested from his rented accommodation at Salt Lake in Kolkata after the police managed to trace his location using technical surveillance, they said.
The arrest comes after a complaint was lodged by the victim, also a doctor, against Kumar at the Rajouri Garden police station in 2020, officials said.
According to the police, the complainant alleged that in 2015, he got a message from an unknown mobile number regarding admission in medical PG courses.
When he called that number, the caller introduced himself as Dr Naveen Kumar, an ex-official of the Health Ministry who assured the victim that he can get his son admitted in a medical college through management quota as he had contacts in the universities.
The accused assured admission for his son in Diploma in Radio Medical Diagnosis (DMRD) at D Y Patil Medical College in Pune for a cost of Rs 1.5 crores, police said.
After several telephonic discussions, the victim made an advance payment of Rs 24 lakhs. But when Kumar could not secure admission, the victim urged him to return his money. The accused returned only Rs 7.92 lakhs and then stopped responding to calls and switched off his mobile phone, the complainant alleged.
A senior police officer said, “The victim had neither met the accused nor had any of his photo. The accused had also changed his cell phone number.
“Our team collected the address of the beneficiary bank accounts in which the cheated amount of Rs 24 lakhs were transferred. The police visited the addresses mentioned in the bank account of the accused but could not find him.”
Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Urvija Goel said using technical surveillance, our team managed to identify the current mobile number of the accused which was found to be active in Salt Lake area.
“A team was sent there and since it was a flood affected area, they stationed themselves there for three days. When the situation became normal on August 5, our team arrested the accused from his rented accommodation and was brought to Delhi on transit remand.”
After completing his MBBS from Rohtak, Kumar went to Mumbai to pursue his MD where he came in contact with some people who provided admission in medical colleges through management quota. So, he left his studies and joined them. In 2015, he shifted to Kolkata where he started running a Laboratory Collection Centre in the name of Apollo Diagnostics Centre, the officer said.