Bhubaneswar: The Crime Branch of state police Tuesday arrested the prime accused of a medical seat racket from his office on the premises of a prominent mall here. The racket comprising several doctors and the management staffers of medical colleges in various states including Odisha have duped a number of MBBS aspirants from across the country for several years.
The accused identified as Soumya Kant Mohanty, 34, who is a resident of Batabandha under Nimapara police limits in Puri. The current case (8/19) has been registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by one Sujith Nath Choudhury, an associate professor at the Silcher Medical College in Assam in June this year.
Choudhury, in his complaint, accused Mohanty of cheating Rs 69 lakh on the pretext of getting his daughter admitted into a private medical college at Patia. Mohanty was introduced to Choudhury by another accused who was a paediatric doctor at Hi Tech Medical College. The absconding doctor has reportedly been known to Chaudhury since both belong to the same state.
According to sources, Mohanty used to collect all the personal data of students appearing for MBBS entrance examinations from the coaching institutions having pan India branches. Later, they would target the aspirants who fail to qualify.
The aspirants, who are desperate enough to avail a seat, would give them huge amount of money for a medical seat through management quota.
Mohanty had allegedly promised Choudhury that he would arrange an MBBS seat for his daughter at a private medical college here. Subsequently, Choudhury, who came to Bhubaneswar, gave Rs 2 lakh in cash to Mohanty and his aide Raghunath Behera near the Medical College in July 2015.
Later, he deposited another Rs 51 lakh in Mohanty’s bank account through RTGS. However, Mohanty, who failed to arrange the seat, subsequently assured Choudhury to avail a seat at Saptagiri Medical College in Bangalore. However, he demanded additional Rs 2 lakh from Choudhury which he paid accordingly.
Choudhury sought his money back when Mohanty again failed to avail the MBBS seat at the medical college in Bangalore.
Consequently, Mohanty gave many cheques of different amounts to Choudhury but all bounced due to insufficient balance. Choudhury also could not make any contacts with both Raghunath and Mohanty as their phones were found switched off.
The CB sleuths who succeeded in arresting Raghunath immediately had to put a lot of effort and time to nab Mohanty who would regularly change his phone numbers and office address.
The sleuths came to know during investigation that there are more than a dozen cases of cheating pending against Mohanty at several police stations in Karnataka, West Bengal and different parts of Odisha. However, the sleuths found 10 cases including five at Bangalore, three at Markat Nagar PS in Cuttack, and one each at Infocity, Mancheswar PS in Bhubaneswar including the current one at Crime Branch police station.
Some more victims from Himachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal have contacted the sleuths too.