Fraud Alert: GeekLurn Cheats 2000 Students Of 18 Crore Education Loan Scam, CEO Arrested

The CEO of a Bengaluru-based firm was arrested after the organization defrauded 2,000 students out of Rs 18 crore by making false promises to produce educational loans and then misappropriating the proceeds. According to police sources, each of those pupils was duped out of more than Rs 2 lakh.

The CEO, known as Sreenivas of “GeekLurn,” was brought into prison, according to police. Other significant members of the management, including CFO Raman P C & OH Aman, have yet to be arrested.

The event was brought to light after a student, 26, registered in the organization’s 24-month data science curriculum in December. The student submitted a complaint accusing the CEO and other officials of cheating.

GeekLurn is headquartered in Jayanagar, near Southend Circle. In his formal complaint, the student alleged that he and the accused agreed to raise a loan in his name and move the EMI to his savings account in the form of a scholarship.

The company would go on paying the EMI until the student found work. Owing to the contract, the student must then pay the EMI, as stated by the complainant.

The loan amount, on the other hand, was to stay with the accused. The victim joined last December and a loan of Rs. 1.5 lakh was taken into his/her name.

The EMI was around Rs. 6000. “However, they discontinued paying me the EMI after the third month.”

“When questioned, screamed at me that the deal had been dissolved for a reason and that I had to pay the outstanding EMI. I hadn’t finished the online course and didn’t have a job to pay the EMI,” claimed the student, who went to Jayanagar police station the previous month.

“The organization was supposed to keep paying the EMI till the student found work. At that point, responsibility would be transferred to the student.”

According to senior police official P Krishnakanth, the suspected fraud scheme featuring “GeekLurn” additionally took place in various states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

According to the authorities, 13 other students came forward after the initial complaint with identical allegations of being duped by GeekLurn personnel.

They did, however, utilize the students’ credentials to obtain college loans from financial companies. They promised to place the EMIs as student scholarships, but only for one month.

The accused had shut down the company and was hiding. There was no training or placement for the students.

Recently, three universities and nearly 30 degree colleges in Odisha, both public and private, have been accused of jeopardizing students’ futures by admitting them in contravention of the Ministry of Higher Education’s e-admission criteria.

Khallikote, Rajendra, and Ravenshaw are the names of these universities. The department has issued show-cause notifications to the vice presidents of the three universities.

As well as the principals of all seven public universities and 25 private institutions, for the infraction. A student fills out a CAF with a minimum of five but a maximum of 20 college options as part of the e-admissions process.

When a student receives a superior institution in slide-up, he or she must decline the first institution offered to him or her during the process of selection and accept admission to the university offered in slide-up.

During the entire procedure, the student’s entrance costs paid to the initial institution are instantly repaid.

“The student received a roll number, but the department did not know about such admissions,” claimed a department senior official.

The scam was discovered before the final exams when the university compared the SAMS list of accepted students to the list supplied by colleges for the production of their test registration numbers.
Similar irregularities in PG admissions were discovered at the three universities as well.

While the division has given show cause notes to the directors of the educational institutions, it has lately regularised such students’ entrance to allow them to sit the final exams.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in late April, detained three people in connection with a multi-crore scholarship fraud in Lucknow. They are Izhar Jafri, Ali Jafri, and Ravi P Gupta.

All of the arrested people received five-day ED custody by an appropriate court in Lucknow. According to an ED statement, the inquiry found that these individuals were running the scam through the Hygia Group of Institutions in Lucknow.

In a plot with payments bank agents, the three accused reportedly diverted scholarship cash from students’ funds to the financial accounts belonging to the Hygia Group of institutions and other individuals and institutes.

During the probe, it was discovered that a number of the aforementioned pupils were unaware that they had taken advantage of any such schemes under their names.

The inquiry additionally revealed that they not just controlled beneficiary students’ bank accounts and illicitly retained their ATM cards and contact information for self-operation.

They also unlawfully used the customer IDs and passwords of people and their micro-ATM devices to transfer and withdraw the scholarship money in cash from the students’ bank accounts at various locations.

According to the statement, the scholarship payments were credited straight to the students’ accounts, but the person in question circumvented all of the system’s safeguards.

The inquiry additionally revealed that the detained individuals were direct recipients of criminal proceeds.

The ED had previously conducted searches on February 16 in connection with the case of 10 college campuses in various areas of Uttar Pradesh, notably Lucknow.

Crucial evidence was recovered about these institutes, as well as several additional colleges and institutes that appeared to be complicit in the violations.

The MIDC police one month ago detained the head of an institute in Ranchi. This was for obtaining a loan through a financial company which is from Mumbai, to provide laptop computers and study materials to pupils.

According to the authorities, several more cases have been filed against the culprit, Ranveer Kumar, within his jurisdiction. Tukaram Kate, a worker of the financing company, is the complainant in this case.

Kate told the cops that the institution had borrowed 1.53 crores from his company in April 2021 to provide laptop computers to 116 students. Kumar’s loan was accepted by the finance business, but three successive EMIs swayed.

Then it was discovered that the pupils had not received any laptops. According to the authorities, Kumar not only failed to supply laptops to students, but he also stole funds from them in the form of equipment and study materials.

After their visa paperwork was discovered to be false, the Canada Border Services Agency issued deportation orders to 700 Indian students in March. These students acquired their visas via Brijesh Mishra of EMS, who assisted students with visa applications.

EMS is based in Jalandhar. According to a report, Mishra charged a minimum of Rs 16 lakh to each student for visa charges, which included the entrance price but did not include airfares or security deposits.

According to Canadian authorities, the students created ‘admission offer letters’ to enter the nation for their education. These students are claimed to have visited Canada in 2018-19.

This was the initial occasion that a student visa scam of this magnitude had been discovered in Canada.

Proofread & Published By Naveenika Chauhan