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Police said Piyush Saini (45) had cheated more than 25 persons of amounts between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 45 lakh. Students were promised admissions to medical and engineering colleges across India, Europe, New Zealand and Singapore.
He was arrested after a retired Punjab University professor filed a complaint against him.
According to police, professor Prem Singh Sekhon approached Crime Branch earlier this month and claimed that Saini, who used to run an admission guidance agency in Old Rajinder Nagar, had duped him of Rs 15 lakh on pretext of getting his grandson an admission for MBBS at Bharti Vidyapeeth, Pune.
Investigations revealed that Saini hails from Roorkee in Haridwar and had reportedly come to Delhi in 1993.
“He completed his graduation from Delhi University and started cheating students on pretext of getting them admissions in diploma and engineering courses in Delhi. In 1994, he opened an admission guidance centre ‘Disha Educational’ in Safdarjung Enclave and continued cheating prospective engineering and medical students. Interestingly, he was booked for cheating a student of Rs 1.5 lakh,” DCP (Crime) SBS Tyagi said.
After that, he shifted his agency in 2002 to another block in the same area.
He was in jail from 2004 to 2006 and started another admission centre ‘Education Wise’ in Rajinder Nagar after his release.
“Saini would specifically target students from remote areas in Punjab, advertising regularly in leading newspapers about admissions under NRI and management quota. The advertisements always emphasised the limited availability of seats to create a sense of urgency. He promised them admissions to more than 14 foreign universities, including London School of Business and University of Wales,” Tyagi said.
