Bhubaneswar, June 2: Police today arrested a Berhampur University MPharma topper, considered mastermind of the fake placement drive at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), a constituent of Siksha O Anusandhan (SOA) University.

More than 400 students of the university were victims of the fake recruitment drive.

The accused has been identified as Manas Ranjan Nayak, 31, a 2012 topper in MPharm from Berhampur University.

The police said Manas had been recruiting students for the past four years and came in contact with Raj Kumar Hota, additional dean of placement, SOA, last October. Hota was arrested on May 26 and is now in judicial custody.

"Manas facilitated the deal of campus placement between a consultancy and Hota and subsequently brought one company for placement. Manas was aware that the company was fake. It was the first company to visit the ITER for placement," said a police official.

The police said investigations so far had revealed that Manas received costly gifts from the consultancy firm in Delhi. "After the fake consultancy firm took entry into the SOA, they sidelined Manas. The consultancy later sent its people who posed as representatives of eight other companies and recruited students," said the police official.

He said further investigation was on to ascertain whether Manas received any money for the deal.

The police have found that Manas, a native of Salipur in Cuttack district, had worked with several pharmaceutical companies, including Ranbaxy. He had also worked as a lecturer at the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Puri.

"After remaining in the pharmaceutical field for several years, Manas contacted several job websites and started recruiting on his own. He started his own consultancy at Baramunda in 2013 and visited several educational institutes across the country. Since Hota's arrest, he had been hiding in Puri, from where he was arrested," said a cop.

Police commissioner Y.B. Khurania said Manas was being grilled to extract more information on the fraud. He said: "We are also trying to identify the other people involved in the scam. Further investigation in the case is on."

More than 400 students were provided with call letters and subsequently joining letters in nine companies after going through written tests, group discussions and personal interviews. However, the new recruits were shocked after around 50 students reached Gurgaon for joining in the last week of May, but the company denied having conducted any placement drive.

The company also denied having issued any letters to the recruits. Following the incident, the varsity verified with various companies and found the letters issued by nine companies to be fake.

Niser plea

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer the status of institute of national importance on National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser). Degrees of Niser students continue to be awarded by the deemed university Homi Bhaba National Institute.