Mastermind of racket promising seats in Odisha medical colleges arrested from West Bengal

Bhubaneswar: A fraudster who is said to be the mastermind of a racket, that duped several aspiring students by promising seats for admission to different medical colleges in the State under Management Quota, was arrested today from West Bengal by a team of sleuths from Odisha Crime Branch.

The key accused identified as Shubhasish Pati was absconding for the last three years.

The conman was involved in a cheating case involving Rs 18.5 lakh and was apprehended from a place under Bishnupur police limits in South 24 Parganas of West Bengal.

Based on reliable information, a raid was conducted by the team led by Inspector Debi Prasad Dash in South 24 Parganas leading to the arrest. Shubhasish was produced before the Court of Additional CJM, Alipore, South 24 Parganas, WB for transit remand and would be brought to Odisha soon.

Shubhasish’s involvement in other crimes in Odisha is being verified, an official source said.

“Binod Kumar of Himachal Pradesh had reported regarding cheating of Rs 18.5 lakh during 2015-16 by three persons on the pretext of getting a seat under the Management Quota for his son in a reputed medical collage at Bangalore or Bhubaneswar. When they failed to keep their promise, they issued a cheque to the complainant and it later bounced,” a press release of Crime Branch read.

In this connection Crime Branch PS case (No-19, dated-16.12.2019 U/s 420/465/467/468/471/120-B/34 IPC was registered and a detailed probe was initiated.

It is pertinent to mention, two other accused namely Raghunath Behera and Somyakanta Mahanty were previously arrested in this case and forwarded to court.