Powai Police Arrest 10 Engineers in Engineering Admission Fraud Ring
Powai police have arrested 10 engineers for allegedly operating an admission fraud racket that targeted parents seeking engineering seats under the management quota, cheating at least 35 victims of nearly Rs 50 lakh.
The investigation began after a Powai couple lost Rs 16.5 lakh while trying to secure an engineering seat for their son at the International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad. Two members of the gang had met the parents on the institute's campus to convince them that the admission process was legitimate.
The fraud was uncovered when the Powai couple received an admission confirmation email asking their son to attend classes starting August 1. The parents grew suspicious after noticing that the message originated from a domain different from the institute's official domain name and alerted authorities.
Police officers subsequently set a trap by posing as prospective parents seeking college seats. The undercover operation resulted in the arrest of 10 suspects and the full recovery of the Rs 16.5 lakh paid by the Powai family.
Investigators identified 35-year-old civil engineer Sonu Kumar as the alleged mastermind. According to police, Kumar and two associates, who had studied engineering together, recruited people from Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh to expand the operation. The gang had been running the racket from Pune since 2024, operating for about four months starting every April during the college admission cycle.
The group allegedly posted advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms promising admissions to colleges in Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Noida, and Pune. Parents who clicked on the advertisements submitted their contact information through online forms, after which the accused contacted them to demand large sums of money.
To conceal their identities, each member allegedly used two burner phones. Police seized 22 mobile phones, 23 SIM cards, a laptop, seven debit cards, a tablet, and three high-end cars registered under friends' names. Investigators also froze approximately Rs 24 lakh linked to the accused and are currently searching for two additional suspects.
