New Delhi, Aug. 3: Delhi police today arrested a former merchant navy officer in Ranchi on the charge of cheating 70 students of Rs 1.5 crore after promising them seats in an institute near Calcutta.

Deputy commissioner of Delhi police Chhaya Sharma said 28-year-old Vikas Kumar, a former deck officer, was arrested from his in-laws’ house. The police started a manhunt last month after a complaint by Vinod Rana, who runs a merchant navy coaching centre called IPMT & IPSR Maritime in Chanakyapuri.

Kumar had promised to get 70 students of the centre admitted to the Maritime Education Training and Research Institute (Metri) at Falta in South 24-Parganas.

Rana told the police: “Kumar came to my institute in April and said he had good contacts with some known merchant navy institutes in Calcutta and Mumbai.” Rana asked Kumar to ensure the admission of 70 students for pre-sea and post-sea training courses.

Kumar told him he would travel to Calcutta for admissions at Metri in June.

After reaching Calcutta, Kumar called up Rana and asked him to deposit Rs 1.5 crore in two bank accounts, Sharma said. But in the first week of July, when the 70 students went to Metri, they learnt their admissions had not been done.

Sharma said: “Acting on a tip-off… that Kumar had recently withdrawn Rs 30,000 from an ATM in Ranchi, a police team set out.”

Kumar has told the police he got injured in an accident once and was declared medically unfit for sea duties.

“He opened an office in Dubai and started a placement agency for merchant navy aspirants and stayed there for seven years. In 2010, he came to India and started searching for institutes that trained students. This is how he cheated the students,” an officer said.