Bund Garden police on Tuesday registered an FIR against CR Bridge Placement Solutions company owner Mandar Abhyankar for allegedly duping eight students on the pretext of giving them placements. This is the second placement fraud case that has come to light this month. A case alleging fraud to the tune of Rs 10.52 lakh has been registered against him.Hassan Khan, who registered an FIR against Abhyankar, said, “He had charged Rs 1. 31 lakh from the students last year promising them training and placements. But we neither received training nor got placed. When we asked for our money, he refused to return it and even threatened us with dire consequences if we approached the Police or media.”The police have registered a fraud (IPC 420) and a threatening case (IPC 506) against Abhyankar. “We have taken the statements of victims and Abhyankar’s employees. He is absconding and the search for him is on,” said police sub-inspector E K Bhumkar.The alleged fraud came to light when Mahamuthu Laxmi, a BCA student from Mumbai, demanded back money from the institute. “I had uploaded my profile on various job sites. In January last year, I got a mail from CR Bridge saying that I have been shortlisted. I came here and deposited the money. We were promised three-month training after which we were supposed to get internships in a project with a stipend of Rs 6,000. And if we failed to get any placement, we were promised that our money would be returned,” said Laxmi.Laxmi did not any placement in the specified time.”When neither training nor placement happened, I along with my mother met Abhyankar in July last year.We asked him to return our money but he refused. After police intervention, he promised to return the money in 15 days. But instead of returning the money,I got a notice from his advocate asking me to pay Rs 50 lakh for defaming him. After that I did not file an FIR as I got scared. Recently, I got in touch with the other students and came to know they too were his victims. That is when I decided to approach police,” said Laxmi.
On Wednesday, eight students along with their parents and some social activists, staged a demonstration in front of the district collectorate.”The classes of the new batch has also started and weare yet get placements. Two of our batch mates have been placed in game testing but that was not the job profile we were promised. At the time of joining, we were promised jobs in multi-national companies like TCS and Persistent Systems. But now all we want is our money back,” said Jitendra Yadav, another student.