Medical scam in Siliguri has roots across southern India: Bengal CID

Dwaipayan Ghosh | TNN | Jun 4, 2016, KOLKATA: You can earn a medical college quota seat for yourself - the agent will file the fake caste certificates required - in colleges of Kolkata, Siliguri, Katihar and Bengaluru - if you are willing to shell anything between Rs 8 lakh to 30 lakh. The CID - which had arrested one Sumantra Chaudhury (32) - last Saturday from the Malbazar area now say that over 220 victims had received "his patronage" in the past 10 years. He had been duping students by asking them to provide lakhs for a place in a reputed private medical college - while a selected managed to grab those seats using fake papers, most others were left in the lurch even after making full payments.

CID sources claim that Sumantra began this illegal business by using his father's deep connections. His father is presently the superintendent of the Katihar Medical College. "We have come to know that between 2006 and 2010, the accused was residing at Golf Green. His father was then employed in a senior position at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. He opened an office at Jodhpur Park to "assist" students for admission. It was here that his business really took off.

"The accused recruited agents across the country who prepared list of all those students who missed the medical seat that year. He would then advertise claiming he can help with the placements. In cases, fake caste certificates were prepared by his gang, where that was not possible the gang merely kept assuring students of securing another seat at some other place and milking more money. At times, the accused ensured he made highest bids at certain medical colleges for their management quota seats. Amazingly, a few of the students who did manage to gain entry in such colleges have now managed to secure their MBBS degrees too," said a CID investigator.

The first time he was arrested was for allegedly duping a medical student from Guwahati - Nagma Khan - into paying Rs 17 lakh for the promise of admission in a reputed college. By then, he had shifted to a posh house at Uttarayan in nothern Siliguri. In the present case, it was an Andaman student Sajia Ahmed who lodged a complaint with Siliguri commissionarate before the case was transferred to CID. Sources said she had passed class 12 in 2012 and had befriended a man who promised to get her admitted at a medical college in Bengaluru. However, after receiving an initial payment, the student was asked to meet Sumantra. He promised her a seat at the Katihar College and asked several lakhs from her. She paid these amounts all through 2013 but never got in to a medical college.

"Gupta was always on the run. We are now seizing his bank accounts wherein he has made lakhs of rupees. It is certain that his gang has a presence across India, especially since his victims are spread across the country. We are presently raiding four different places in the state to trace him," said the CID official.