2 Doctors Among 4 Booked For Defrauding Senior Physician Of Rs 70 Lakh

Mumbai:

Four individuals, including two physicians, have been charged for allegedly defrauding a doctor of Rs 70 lakh by promising his daughter admission to a Mumbai municipal medical college and hospital's MBBS program under management quota, police reported on Monday.

According to an official from the Sion police station where the FIR was registered, the accused were identified as Dr. Rakesh Ramnarayan Verma, Dr. Akhileshkumar Rammoorthy Pal, both employed at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital in Sion, along with two others, Luv Avadhkishore Gupta and Kush Gupta.

All four suspects will be summoned soon for questioning in this pandemic-era fraud case, he stated.

The complainant, a 61-year-old physician, resides in Sion with his spouse and daughter. Both he and his wife are practicing doctors operating a clinic in Dharavi near Sion. Their daughter, after failing to qualify through NEET five years ago, had been seeking admission opportunities under management quota, the official explained.

The family had inquired at various medical institutions, including LTM Medical College (also known as Sion Medical College), JJ Hospital, DY Patil, and Vedanta Hospital in neighboring Palghar regarding her admission, but without success.

During this period, the complainant connected with Dr. Verma, who claimed he could arrange admission for his daughter under management quota at LTM Medical College, according to police.

Subsequently, during a meeting at a Sion hotel, Dr. Pal demanded Rs 1 crore for securing the admission. When the complainant expressed inability to pay such a substantial amount, he was introduced to Luv Gupta, after which the "admission" agreement was finalized at Rs 70 lakh, the official stated.

Between September 2020 and February 2021, the complainant paid the amount in installments at an office in Belapur, Navi Mumbai, following the accused's instructions. Days later, he received an email (later determined to be fraudulent) confirming his daughter's "admission" to the prestigious institution, he said.

The accused provided a counterfeit admission letter in March 2021, after which the complainant's daughter began attending purported online lectures (due to the coronavirus pandemic).

She became suspicious when noticing only five students apparently attending the classes, all conducted exclusively through audio. She had never visually encountered any faculty member, including her supposed professor Anupam Patil, the official noted.

The fraud was uncovered when the complainant approached the LTM Medical College dean, who confirmed no such admission had occurred and the admission letter was fake. Upon discovering the deception, the complainant demanded refund, but the accused ignored his repeated requests, he explained.

Ultimately, he filed a complaint with Sion police, resulting in the registration of an FIR, the official added.