Lady doctor, two men held for cheating

HYDERABAD: A lady doctor and two others were arrested on Friday for cheating MBBS aspirants with 'promise' of providing seats in medical colleges and posts in primary health care centres. The trio cheated seven aspirants of Rs 35 lakh and spent the amount lavishly by purchasing a costly car and gold jewellery.The incident came to light last month when a couple of aspirants lodged a complaint with police. The arrested are a 29-year-old doctor Dr Betapudi Sowjanya, who runs a private clinic at Begumpet, P Jagveer alias Kiran alias Uday, who runs the Orbit computer coaching centre at Ameerpet and his assistant, G Badrappa alias Badri alias Gopichand.According to police, Sowjanya used to identify aspirants who were to appear for medical entrance examinations and lure them with promise of admission in colleges. She also duped doctors who wanted jobs in primary health care centres. “They target aspirants who are not very confident of getting a seat and approach them,” Central Crime Sstation inspector B Anand said. With help of another person, Kailash they approached aspirants and convinced them that Jagveer had contacts with ministers and officials of NTR Health University, which deals with medical counselling and promised them seat in medical colleges. Badri helped in collecting money from the aspirants. The trio duped seven persons and collected Rs 35 lakh, police said. Cases under sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (conspiracy) were registered against the accused.The arrested shared the amount among them and spent it in purchasing an Accent car and costly jewellery, Anand said. Police recovered the Accent car and 32 tola gold jewellery all worth Rs 14 lakh.