Two persons, who run a chain of tutorial centres across the city, have been arrested by the RT Nagar police for allegedly cheating many people across the city through the issuance of false checks and non-payment of bills and salaries. The accused were identified as Nithin (25), a local resident, and Pratheep (41), a native of Uttar Pradesh.
“The tutorial, Eductech, had branches in Yelahanka, Jayanagar, HSR Layout, RT Nagar and Sheshadripuram,” a police officer said, adding that it provided coaching for PUC, CBSE and other competitive examinations. But it did not succeed in meeting the expectations of the students as well as their parents, who kept complaining about lack of staff strength and poor coaching.
However, the real problem lay elsewhere. Police said that the duo had purchased many computers, books and electronic items when the institute was opened in 2008 – and the payment was made through cheques. However, when they began bouncing, Pratheep and Nithin sought more time for repayment. Eight months later, the payments were yet to be made.
Finally, Ajay, the agent who had supplied them with computers, filed a case on March 12. Stating that the two were arrested on Saturday, RT Nagar police inspector Poovaiah said that over 12 cases of cheating were filed against them.
“Following the arrest, the tutors at their institute came forward to complain against non-payment of salary and book store owners alleged that the cheques handed over to them had bounced. Even students filed complaints against the duo. We expect more complaints to crop up against them soon,” he said.
The Jayanagar and Sheshadripuram police stations also received complaints against Pratheep and Nithin. The police were yet to arrive at an estimate of the money swindled because cases were still being filed against the two until Monday.
Over 200 students had enrolled themselves in various branches of Edutech. While amounts ranging from Rs9,000 to Rs15,000 were collected from each of them, the salaries of the staffers were withheld.
Pratheep, it was discovered, happened to be no stranger to fraudulent activities. A cheating case was registered against him with the Mahadevapura police in 2008, after the ‘entrepreneur’ took money from a person for some event management work but failed to deliver. He was also involved in an automobile business scam at Mumbai in 1997.
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