ED arrests former president of Maharashtra-based educational society in case of duping medical aspirants

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested former president of an educational society of Maharashtra under the anti-money laundering law for allegedly duping of medical aspirants in lieu of grant of admission to them in an ineligible college.

According to the federal probe agency, 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, 2022 by a court.

As per the FIR, the society trust was given 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). However, the admission regulatory authority, in 2014, rejected the permission for admission in MBBS for the academic year 2014-15.

An FIR has been filed at Satara district police 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”.

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”.

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