Watching ads on Reels, many went medical seat shopping to mall, then got a rude shock

Ghaziabad: A couple and their business partner have been booked for allegedly cheating students on the pretext of securing them a berth at a medical college in Spain.
The accused — Rahul Gautam, his wife Archana and their partner Vivek Kumar — were operating an education consultancy, The Internationally, from Angel Mall in Kaushambi, police said. They would post reels and advertisements on social media platforms to lure students with offers of admission to colleges abroad without taking any exams. Nearly 50 people have been cheated by them since 2022.
DCP of trans-Hindon zone Nimish Patil said an FIR was registered at Kaushambi police station against the trio on charges of cheating and forgery after complaints were submitted from several parts of the country, including Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
Police sources said most of these applicants they had come across had not taken NEET, the entrance exam for medical courses in India, and were looking for admission to courses in colleges in Europe.
Complainants claimed the accused took anything between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 16 lakh on the pretext of processing visa applications, securing admission to a mandatory one-year language course and medical course at the University of Barcelona, Spain, among other things. While visa applications — papers for which were arranged by the agency — of most students got rejected, a few managed to reach Spain on short-term student visas for the language course that would be arranged by the agency’s partner in Europe, Sashmita Nanda. The accused assured to complete the admission for medical course as the applicants started on the language classes, but students found the allotment letters were fake.
One of the victims from Haryana, claimed the accused assured him admission to an MBBS course in the University of Barcelona without writing the UNED exam — mandatory for admission to any university in the country.
“During the visa process, the agency presented papers only for the language course. The agency told me to say I would pursue medical studies after completing the course. They provided a pre-allotment letter from the university, which Nanda arranged. I got a 90-day visa for the language course. On reaching Spain, I found I was not enrolled on any language classes, so I invested my own money for one. Once my visa expired, I asked the agency and Nanda to apply for the Foreign Identification Number, but they didn’t help me. I managed to get a month’s extension on my visa and NIE once but when I reapplied it was rejected due to mistakes in documents,” the student, who returned to India two weeks ago, said.
Another complainant, Pramod Raghwan of Kerala, said is 19-year-old daughter contacted the agency after watching one of their reels in Aug last year. “Vivek assured to secure her a seat at the University of Barcelona without taking any entrance exam. We visited their office in Ghaziabad and paid Rs 15 lakh for processing the admission. On Sept 23, she appeared for a visa interview at the Consulate General of Spain in Mumbai, but the application was rejected due to mismatch in documents submitted for the university,” he said, adding the agency has not reimbursed the money yet.
Another complainant, Dr Pankaj Gupta of Ghaziabad said he paid Rs 10 lakh for his son’s admission through the agency. “Vivek, Archana and others convinced me by showing fake documents and testimonies. They assured a one-time payment of 1,000 euros to students in the fourth year of the course,” he said.
DCP Patil said Archana was arrested in June by Mumbai police after a 28-year-old doctor submitted a complaint against the accused for cheating him of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of securing admission to a PG course in radiology in Spain without any entrance exams.“Victims were told to transfer money in two accounts, one belonging to Archana and the other to Nanda in Poland. We are investigating the matter.Vivek and Rahul are absconding at the moment,” Patil said.