2 suspects are arrested in connection to a case where many engineering students were duped with false promises of placements.
The Crime Investigation Department, on Monday, arrested a 2-member gang which allegedly duped the students of 9 engineering colleges with promises of campus recruitment.
According to Additional DGP (CID) SV Ramana Murthy, the accused - Kothapalli Praveena and Sabbineni Seshu Kiran - have embezzled nearly Rs. 15 lakhs from about 113 students.
The accused were employees of a company called March-End Consultancy. They were found to have visited the B V C Engineering College, where they conducted a "placement consultancy" program for final year engineering students, and collected Rs. 500 from each student as a processing fee.
Later, after conducting video interviews, all the students were issued fake placement orders on behalf of Mphasis, IBM and Elcon Companies.
The miscreants collected nearly Rs. 2,13,000 in the form of cheques, and about Rs. 12,00,000 in cash.
Further investigations revealed that the accused also commited fraud at other engineering colleges, besides B V C Engineering College.
These include the Rajeev Gandhi Institute of Management and Science, V S Lakshmi Women's Colleges, Aditya Engineering College and Pharmacy, KIET Engineering College, Regency Institute of Technology, Pragathi Engineering College, Sashi Engineering College and Nikitha Engineering College.
The CID says that they cheated the DRDA of the East Godavari District, by holding a "finishing school" for 90 economically backward and unemployed students, and by holding mock interview classes while promising placements to the 90 candidates.
March-End Consultancy's promoter Nori Raghunandan and his other employees/accomplices are at large, and efforts to apprehend them are on way.
Meanwhile, the CID is investigating the negligence of the managements of the colleges under which this fraud occured.
The CID has called upon the managements of professional colleges/institutes to throughly verify the credentials of such consultants with the employing firms, to not allow any promises of "back-door" entries, and to disallow consultants who insist on an advanced processing fee or a 1-month salary. (INN)