Aspiring doc loses 14 lakh to MBBS admission fraud

Noida: Career consultancy for admission into MBBS course has cost almost Rs 14 lakh to an aspiring doctor, who has now filed a complaint of fraud with the Noida police, officials said on Wednesday.

The police lodged an FIR into the cheating case on Tuesday and an investigation has been launched to trace the accused people, Sector 126 police station in-charge Satendra Kumar said. Darshika Singh (26), a Lucknow resident, claimed she took the NEET examination in 2022 and was searching for colleges when she got a phone call on October 13 last year from a person who identified himself as an official of Noida-based Truth Advisors Career Consultancy.

"The call was regarding admission for MBBS and I was informed that the consultancy is located in Noida's Sector 125. A man who identified himself as Jay Mehta, a senior official of the consultancy, met me and my father," Singh claimed. "He assured us of getting me admission into MBBS course for which we transferred Rs 13.98 lakh into the bank account of Truth Advisors Career Consultancy," she said. In her complaint, Singh detailed that the money was transferred in instalments from November 19 till December 22 and she was assured of admission either to a medical college in Bengaluru, Karnataka or Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

"I was told that I will have to report to the college in the first week of January. As January approached, I did not hear from the consultancy or the colleges. When I called up Mehta, his phone was switched off, triggering suspicion," Singh said. Following this, when the woman went to the consultancy's Noida office, the office was also found shut, she claimed. Singh said that she further checked with the colleges in Bengaluru and Varanasi but was told that there was no seat allotment in her name.

"Ever since my whole family is in mental tension, I do not have money for admission anywhere else and feel that my career is ruined," the aspiring doctor said. SHO Kumar said an FIR under the Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) has been lodged. "We have launched a probe into the matter and the so-called consultancy has not been found at the given address. Further investigation is underway," Kumar told PTI.