Techie arrested for duping students with online engineering courses offer

At least 35 students from Karnataka and AP fell prey to the advertisement and paid the accused for classes of their choice

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Cyber Economics and Narcotics (CEN) wing of the Bengaluru South-East division arrested a techie who allegedly duped several students by promising them online courses in engineering.

The accused was identified by the police as Mahesh, a native of Andhra Pradesh. It has been revealed that the accused had launched a website by the name 247. com and had advertised the link on social media sites claiming to provide crash courses in engineering. According to police, at least 35 students from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh fell prey to the advertisement and paid the accused for classes of their choice.

Following a probe, the police learnt that the accused had collected Rs 3 lakh from each student, totalling to about Rs 70 lakh and had got into gambling. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-East) CK Baba said that Mahesh had studied engineering at Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology (MVIT) in Bengaluru and had worked with 4-5 reputed companies here.

"However, later he got into betting and gambling. Several months ago he launched his own gambling website called 247.com, but did not succeed. He then quit his job and started advertising on Facebook and other social media that he would get job aspirants placed in various companies. He would collect Rs 2.5-3 lakh from each of them towards placement charges," the DCP said.

Police found that Mahesh had lavished the money on gold and a luxury car. The police have now seized the cash and the car. A case has been registered against him at the South-East CEN Police Station and further probe is underway