ED arrests ex-president of Maharashtra-based educational society for 'duping' medical aspirants

The ED on Monday said it has arrested the former president of a Maharashtra-based educational society under the anti-money laundering law in a case of alleged duping of medical aspirants in lieu of grant of admission to them in an ineligible college.

Mahadev Ramachandra Deshmukh of Kolhapur-based Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Education Society (SCSES) has been sent to the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) custody till May 18 by a court, the federal probe agency said.

The money-laundering case stems from a Satara district police FIR against Deshmukh and others where it was alleged that the management of the society ''collected funds in cash from the students for admission in the MBBS course into a college named Institute of Medical Science and Research, Mayani (a college of Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Education Society), whereas the college was not eligible for the same''.

''The society trust received permission to run a medical college for the academic year 2012-13 and 2013-14 for 100 seats per annum (85 seats government quota and 15 seats management quota),'' according to the FIR.

However, the agency said the admission regulatory authority, in 2014, rejected the permission for admission in MBBS for the academic year 2014-15.

Despite the admission permission being granted only for 200 students, Deshmukh ''fraudulently and illegally'' collected an amount of about Rs 29 crore in cash from more than 550 students as donation in the guise of admission in the MBBS course, it alleged.

Admission was not granted to about 350 students, the ED said.

The agency's probe found that ''various agents were appointed on commission basis by Deshmukh for luring prospective candidates for admission on payment of donation''.

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