Mumbai: The Kandivali police have arrested the head of a college department, Mahesh Eknath Chavan, on the charges of embezzlement of approximately Rs22 lakh in fees from three students. He was aided in this fraud scheme by college professor Tabrez Karar Khan and employee Mayur Bhiwa Sawant, the co-accused in the case.
Accused convinced students to join Level Six Bachelor's degree abroad
The complainants, Jatin Mistry, along with his friends Ansh Gandhi and Arthav Karnik, enrolled as students at E Cube Global College five years ago after completing their Bachelor of Business, Computing, and Information Systems (BTEC) education. They subsequently completed levels three and five and were awarded their diploma certificates. In December 2021, the three accused convinced the three students to pursue admission to the University of Center Lakeshore in England for a Level Six Bachelor's degree. They were assured that they could complete the program at their current college without the need to travel to England. To secure their admission, they were required to pay a fee of Rs7.6 lakh each, with the promise of a Rs50,000 scholarship. Trusting the accused, they deposited a total of Rs22.3 lakh to the Global Institute of International Studies as instructed. However, they were later informed by the E Cube organisation that the fee payment deadline was in June 2022, which came as a shock since they had already paid for the entire year.
Upon investigation, it was revealed that Mahesh Chavan, Tabrez Khan, and Mayur Sawant had deceived the students by misappropriating the funds instead of depositing them with the University of International Center Lakeshore. The students promptly filed a written complaint with the Kandivali police and a case was registered against the three accused. During a special operation to apprehend the suspects, Chavan was arrested and remanded to police custody by the local court in Borivali.
