A young couple who allegedly cheated over 100 BEd and MEd aspirants of over Rs 65 lakh were arrested in the national capital, police said on Sunday.

Rochak Sharma (28) and his wife Jasmine Sharma (27), who were putting up in a rented Kothi in the posh locality of Delta-1 in Greater Noida, were arrested.

Both were absconding and a non-bailable warrant was issued against them by Delhi High Court, a senior police official said.

The Crime Branch was investigating a case against them in which 113 students were cheated of around Rs 65 lakh on the pretext of giving them degrees of BEd and MEd from Jammu and Kashmir and Kurkshetra Universities.

The arrest came on a complaint filed by one Simmi Trehan, a resident of Sector 9 of Rohini that Rochak, the Director of Dolphin College in Vikaspuri, collected money from several students who applied for BEd and MEd and but later closed down the office.

Later, police said, the couple started a new institution ‘Sharma College of Education’ in Janakpuri and again allegedly cheated many other aspirants. Again, they shut the institute without paying the money back.

Rochak was arrested earlier too but his wife Jasmine managed to get interim bail from the court. The court later granted bail to both husband and wife when they assured that they would settle the issue with the victims.

However, instead of settling the issue, they jumped interim bail and absconded.

“The court had issued non bailable warrants against both of them and proceedings to declare them proclaimed offenders were also initiated,” the police official said.

The couple then established their new base in Greater Noida and started luring other aspirants and supplied them prospectus of various universities and collected money.

They decided to shift from Noida as they sensed people were getting suspicious of their activities. “They contacted a few property dealers in Lodhi Road to secure a rented premises in the institutional area to start another fake institute named Jasmine Institute of Professional Studies,” the official said.

The two were arrested yesterday from Lodhi Institutional Area.

During interrogation, they told police that they started the Dolphin College of Teacher Training initially and started making contacts with the people of various Universities.

“They initially managed to get some bona fide admissions in the Universities but the commission was very less and they could not live the lavish life they desired. In order to earn easy money, they lured BEd and MEd aspirants through advertisements as these courses were in great demand,” the official said.

A car, seven ATM and credit cards of various multi national banks, pass books, PAN cards, bank statements, BEd and MEd related study material, prospectus and gold jewellery were recovered from them during searches at their premises.

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