A ‘NEET’ scam: Man held for conning Rs 5 cr

One of the victims, V Senthilanathan (40) of Kodambakkam, met the accused, S Nagaraj, in 2016. Nagaraj claimed that he was a member of NEET committee and spoke in a convincing manner, police said. Believing the latter’s claims that he has been getting medical seats for many people using his influence, Senthilnathan gave him Rs 4.95 crore for MBBS seats for his relatives’ children and friends.

However, beyond making tall claims, Nagaraj was not about to fulfil his promise of arranging medical seats. Following this, Senthilnathan demanded him to return the money. But instead of returning the amount, Nagaraj reportedly told him that he has been receiving crores of funds from foreign countries. To back this claim, he even showed him a few documents.

However, after falling for his smooth talk once, Senthilnathan was not convinced this time. Instead, he submitted a petition at City police commissionerate requesting the city police to probe the incident.

The Endowment Document Fraud-I wing of the Central Crime Branch took up the case for investigation and arrested Nagaraj from his house.

Sub-inspector K Sujatha who led the investigation into the case, said that Nagaraj was an MSc graduate in Chemistry. But he claimed to have acquired PhD and worked in Pondicherry University in 2013. “We have asked the officials concerned to verify his claims and will take him into custody again for further investigation,”said the official.

Now that he has been arrested for fraud, police are expecting more complaints to pour in against Nagaraj.