A man has been arrested for allegedly cheating a city businessman of over Rs 6 crore with false assurances of getting his daughter admitted to a reputable school in the city and for getting a work-order for a Delhi Development Authority project.
Officers of Bidhannagar cyber police, who made the arrest, said complainant Tarun Kumar Das, a resident of Chinar Park, runs a nursery business and had met Dhruba Banerjee in 2018.
“Initially, Banerjee had convinced Das about his contacts in the education sector and claimed that he could get Das’s daughter admitted to a reputable English medium school in the city. Das had believed him and paid Rs 25 lakh for the admission,” said an officer of Bidhannagar police.
This is not the first time that allegations have emerged about touts taking money promising seats in reputable schools in the city. In 2016, a 45-year-old mother of two had been arrested by Calcutta police for allegedly taking between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh from guardians to get their wards admitted to some of the city’s best schools.
In this case, despite the payment, the child could not get admission to the desired school and Das sought a refund, police said.
“At that point, Banerjee started bargaining and told Das that he would not be able to return the money but instead would ensure that Das gets the work-order of a very big project under the Delhi Development Authority,” the officer said.
The police said the accused had allegedly created a fake mail ID in the name of the Delhi Development Authority and sent Das mails confirming his attachment with the project.
Das was apparently convinced again and yielded to the request of an initial investment of Rs 6 crore as the processing fee for getting the project.
After a few months, when he went to Delhi to initiate the project, officials of the Delhi Development Authority told him no such work-order had been issued to him from their official mail ID.
About a year after he had paid the money, in December 2019, Das realised that neither had his daughter got admission to the school of his choice and nor had he got the project, for which he had paid Rs 6 crore.
He lodged a complaint with Bidhannagar cyber cell, based on which Banerjee was arrested on Friday night.
