College duped of Rs 6 lakh on pretext of admissions in Faridkot

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, July 11

As more private colleges are engaging commission-based agents for enrolments due to a slump in admissions, a nursing college in Faridkot has been duped of Rs 6 lakh by con men.

Promising the Baba Farid Nursing College at Kotkapura of enrolling 55 students from Bihar, the con men allegedly collected Rs 6 lakh as payment for their service.

They lured the college management into the trap by providing fake certificates and other documents of 55 candidates of different localities in Bihar. They also provided 55 fake demand drafts of Rs 39 lakh in lieu of admission and tuition fee for the students, but neither any student was enrolled nor the fee was received as the certificates and demand drafts were found to be fake. The accused have been identified as Bhagat Singh and Anwar, residents of Kishanganj in Gaya district of Bihar.

At a time when many students head abroad to study and then to find employment in foreign countries, most educational institutions, particularly private colleges, are complaining of a sharp drop in admissions. Facing closure, many engineering and nursing colleges are relying on commission-based recruiting agents to lure students from Bihar, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

The payment to the agents is generally linked to the money received by the colleges from the recruited students. On the complaint of the management of the college, the Kotkapura police have registered a criminal case under Sections 420, 465, 468, 471 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code against the accused.