MBBS admission fraud: Two con men from Delhi arrested for promising student admission at GMC for

Mumbai: The police have arrested two frauds who were planning to cheat a Delhi-based student by promising her admission to a prestigious medical institution- Grant Government Medical College (GMC) in Byculla- for which they demanded ₹45 lakh and took ₹2 lakh as deposit.
The accused, identified as Saurabh Upadhyay, 42, and Sapan Taneja, 46 are residents of Delhi and duped several students using a similar modus operandi in New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The police said the accused have several cheating cases registered against them.
Upadhyay used to run a fake college admission company named ‘Edupedia Education Center’ in sector 12, in Dwarka, New Delhi where the father of the student had visited him to secure his daughter’s admission.
Narrating the case, the police said Upadhyay and Taneja initially accepted ₹2 lakh cash from the father of the student, the complainant in the case, and took them to the college while pretending to introduce them to a senior doctor for a staged interview.
After the fake interview, the two accused collected documents such as student’s blood samples and IDs. Not satisfied with the way the interview was conducted, the father suspected foul play and decided to consult his lawyer friend who helped him identify red flags in the case. On Friday, they met a police officer at Cuffe Parade to discuss the case. Once it was confirmed that both the persons promising admission were frauds, the police laid a trap and arrested them from a spot near the Gateway of India.
There are a total of seven cases registered against Upadhyay- two in Lucknow, and each in Kanpur, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur in Uttar Pradesh, Dwarka police station in Delhi and Nerul police station in Navi Mumbai. One cheating case was registered against Taneja in Lakhimpur, Uttar Pradesh.
According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Delhi who works in a private firm and his daughter wanted to do MBBS and she has taken an entrance exam in NEET 2024. Her father on August 26 visited Upadhyay’s office in New Delhi where Taneja filled out the admission form promising a seat in GMC in Byculla and took ₹7,700 while filling out the form.
The accused demanded ₹45 lakh for total expenses for admission. The complainant paid ₹2 lakh in two instalments on September 5 and September 8 through a bank account to the accused. The accused promised the complainant to meet outside JJ College in Mumbai and on September 12, he along with his daughter met Tajena, Upadhyay and one more accused who is wanted in the case. They met at 1pm at Government Medical College, Byculla. The accused took the complainant and her daughter to a doctor’s room at the main OPD at Sir JJ Group Hospitals pretending that there would be an interview with her, said a police officer.
“One of the accused associates collected the documents and also a blood sample of the girl saying that it is part of the process. The accused then asked the complainant to meet the next day in South Mumbai,” said senior inspector Sanjay Kate of the JJ Marg police station.
But the complainant suspected foul play and informed his lawyer friend in Mumbai who knew police official Rupesh Bhagwat of the Cuffe Parade police station and informed him. Bhagwat then narrated the incident to the deputy commissioner of police Pravin Mundhe of zone 1 and as per his direction Bhagwat along with inspector Amit Deokar laid a trap near Gateway of India premises and as soon as they met the complainant were arrested, said Kate.
As the incident occurred in the jurisdiction of Sir JJ police station, an FIR was registered there under 318 (4), 3(5) of the BNS against the accused. Saurabh Upadhyay and Sapan Taneja were arrested in the case. The accused have received money in their bank account which has been frozen. Both were produced in the court and remanded in police custody till September 18, said a police officer.