Mumbai Cyber Crime: Cons Pose As Admission Agents 'Selling' Engineering Seats On Facebook; Cheat 35 Families Of Nearly ₹50 Lakh

Powai Police arrested 10 engineers for allegedly cheating at least 35 parents of nearly Rs 50 lakh by promising management-quota engineering admissions. The group allegedly used Facebook and Instagram advertisements to target families seeking seats. Police identified civil engineer Sonu Kumar as the mastermind and seized 22 phones, 23 SIM cards and three high-end cars during the probe.

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Mumbai: A group of engineers allegedly turned social media into a hunting ground for parents desperate to secure engineering seats for their children, luring at least 35 victims with promises of management-quota admissions before cheating them of nearly Rs 50 lakh. Powai police have arrested 10 engineers in connection with the racket, which allegedly targeted families seeking admissions to colleges in Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Noida and Pune.

Police identified 35-year-old civil engineer Sonu Kumar as the alleged mastermind. According to a report, the accused had been operating the racket from Pune since 2024, returning from their native places in Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh every April when the college admission season began. They allegedly ran the operation for around four months each year.

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Social Media Ads Targeted Parents

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The accused reportedly posted advertisements on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms offering engineering admissions under the management quota. Parents who clicked on the advertisements were asked to submit their names and contact details through online forms. The accused would then contact them and allegedly demand large sums of money to secure seats.

A Powai couple lost Rs 16.5 lakh after being promised admission for their son to the International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad. Two accused allegedly met the parents on the college premises to convince them that the admission was genuine.

Fake Email Raises Suspicion

The couple later received an email purportedly from the institute confirming their son's admission and asking him to join classes from August 1. However, they became suspicious after noticing that the email had originated from a domain different from the institute's official domain. The case came to light when police officers posed as parents and approached the accused. The operation led to the arrests, and police recovered the entire Rs 16.5 lakh paid by the Powai couple.

Kumar and two other accused had studied engineering together and later recruited people from their hometowns to expand the racket. Police have found at least five cases registered against members of the group in different parts of the country.

Phones, SIM cards & Cars Seized

To avoid detection, each accused allegedly used two burner phones. Police seized 22 mobile phones, 23 SIM cards, a laptop, seven debit cards and a tablet. Around Rs 24 lakh in funds linked to the accused were frozen, while three high-end cars allegedly belonging to Kumar but registered in friends' names were also seized. Police are now searching for two more suspects and investigating the group's financial transactions to identify additional victims.

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