Many Admitted To Have Paid Touts: Cops
Weeks after a major admission racket in Delhi University
was busted, Delhi Police is now investigating the role played by the parents of
the students who sought admission to DU colleges by presenting fake SC/ST certificates.
Three agents and two DU employees have been already arrested in the case.
The crime branch has questioned the parents of the 13 students involved in the racket
and recovered several documents, relating to payments made to scam kingpin Himanshu
Gupta, from their possession. Crime branch sources now say the parents would be
named in the charge sheet.
The parents paid amounts ranging between Rs. 2.5 to Rs. 5 lakh to Gupta and two
other touts Vikas Khanna and Ketan Gupta for SC/ST certificates that would allow
their children to seek admission in prestigious colleges under the reserved category.
Senior Delhi Police officials say they have not arrested the parents because they
are still collecting evidence in the case and are yet to arrest Satish, an employee
at the Ghaziabad Tehsil.
The parents against whom we will find evidence of making payments to agents would
be charge sheeted under section 120B (criminal conspiracy ). We have spoken to all
of them. Some of them have admitted to paying the money while a few others will
have to be questioned again, said an officer. In an effort to jog their memory,
the police have questioned some parents in the presence of accused Gupta and Khanna
as well.
The department is also scanning call records of the parents because they reportedly
kept in touch with the racketeers over the phone. The parents were aware that what
they were doing was illegal. They paid for their kids admissions knowingly, said
an officer.
During the interrogation of Gupta, the police learnt that he had facilitated admissions
by provided fake certificates under SC/ST category in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Most
of the students who availed of his services during these years also belonged to
affluent families.
The racket came to light in the middle of June when crime branch officials arrested
Himanshu Gupta and two others for facilitating students admission, through the reserved
category in prominent DU colleges, by providing them fake SC/ST certificates.
During the probe, the police learnt 12 students had gained admission this
year through this dubious route in colleges such as SRCC, Kirori Mal, Sri Venkateshwara,
Kamla Nehru and Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Moti Lal Nehru and College of Vocational Studies.
Courtesy: Times of India
