Absconding 'engineer' nabbed from UP's Sharanpur in 2004 fraud case

The Delhi Police has apprehended a 63-year-old ''engineer'' for allegedly duping people with fake promises of medical college admissions through newspaper advertisements, an officer said on Wednesday. According to police, Rajesh Rajput, a civil engineering diploma holder, came into contact with some fraudsters in the early 2000s and became involved in running a fake consultancy firm named Helpline Consultants Private Ltd.

The group would advertise in national dailies, claiming it could help people secure admissions in medical and engineering colleges, and charged hefty sums for the 'service,' the officer said.

Rajput was declared a proclaimed offender in 2006 after he failed to appear in a court following bail in a 2004 case of cheating and criminal conspiracy, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Harsh Indora said.

He said Rajput was part of a gang that ran an NGO-styled front and lured unsuspecting parents seeking admission for their wards. ''Rajput, along with his associates, had cheated a doctor from Odisha of Rs 4 lakh in the name of securing an MBBS seat for his son through management quota,'' the DCP said.

In connection with the fraud, a case was registered under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) at Shalimar Bagh Police Station. The investigation was later transferred to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

Though Rajput was arrested, he stopped attending court hearings soon after securing bail, leading to him being declared a proclaimed offender in February 2006.

At length, hunt for him led a police team to Saharanpur, where it tracked down Rajput to a house, his own, and nabbed him in an early morning raid on July 1.

''Despite non-cooperation from the locals, the team managed to locate the accused. Rajput initially denied his identity, but later confessed during sustained interrogation at the Crime Branch office in Delhi,'' the DCP said.

His identity was confirmed with the help of records from Shalimar Bagh Police Station and EOW. He was formally arrested under Section 35(1)(d) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

''The gang is believed to have cheated several people using this method. Efforts are on to identify other victims and trace the remaining members,'' Indora said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)