Pune: Police are investigating a complaint filed by a 48-year-old retired naval official that accused a coaching centre director and three staffers of duping him and 31 others of Rs42.33 lakh. This was over the issue of not refunding their fees paid between June 21 and July 2, 2024, after the centre closed down its joint entrance examination (JEE) classes running from Vega Centre in Swargate. The official, a resident of Dharashiv and currently residing at NIBM Road in Kondhwa, initially filed a complaint with the city police’s economic offences wing (EOW). After verification, an FIR relating to cheating was registered at Swargate police station on Thursday night.“Several parents admitted their children to the coaching centre for JEE preparations and paid fees of varying amounts. The suspects later held an online meeting with the parents and communicated to them that they had decided to shut down the coaching centre on July 2 last year,” senior police inspector Yuvraj Nandre said on Friday.Nandre said the suspects gave the students the option to either join online classes in Delhi, physically attend lectures there, or send an email to claim a refund of fees. “Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects refunded fees to most of the parents, but some did not get the refund for one reason or another.”The complainant alleged that he and other parents wrote to the suspects demanding a refund, but they did not receive a reply or refund to date. After the suspects stopped communicating with the parents, they filed a complaint with the EOW demanding action against them, the complaint said.About the progress in probe, the police officer said the whereabouts of the suspects named in the FIR are not known as of now, but a team is working on certain clues to trace them at the earliest.
